Author(s)

Valentine Nyamndon

Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC), De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.

As an imperial photographic backdrop, the column backdrop is identified in colonial and post-colonial photographic studios in Cameroon. There are a few contributions to address the column as an element of dense photographic composition in Cameroon photo studios. The use of Columns as the vitality of ancient and Renaissance theory and practice in Roman architecture makes up extant literature. In Cameroon, grey literature in museums and archives like the Cameroon Press Photo Archives (CPPA), Presbyterian Basel Mission, and West Cameroon Archives have ground sheets that portray missionaries and the colonialist empires using the columns in buildings, decorations, and photo backdrops. Extant literature in books and newspapers also portrays the use of columns in varying forms. A recent study on the rise and fall in the statistics of commercial photographers in Cameroon shows the use of carved ornamented parapets as props and the column backdrop in one of the early photographs taken in the coastal town of Douala (Duala). This study aimed at sourcing the column backdrops in albums, photo collections, museums, archives, and extant literature as socio-cultural material. To unearth the extent to which the column backdrop connects people and places, to the history of the colonialist and the colonized in Cameroon. As a method, the use of eliciting interviews qualitatively forms a base of three questions: How could the source of a column as backdrop be traced in Cameroon with three colonial masters? To what extent has the column backdrop entangled architecture and decorations in colonies and former occupying states? What is the fate of the column photo backdrop in the post-colonial states? These are questions that form the major concerns that are addressed in this paper.

Entanglements, Column Backdrop, Cameroon, Colonial Masters, Photo Studio

Nyamndon, V. (2024) Photographic Entanglements a Study of Column Backdrop in African Photo Studios: The Case of Cameroon. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 12, 353-367. doi: 10.4236/jss.2024.124024.