The Portrait and the Colonial Imaginary: Photography between France and Africa 1900-1939

French colonisers of the Third Republic claimed not to oppress but to liberate, imagining they were spreading republican ideals to the colonies to make a Greater France. This book explores the various roles played by portraiture in this colonial imaginary.
Anyone interested in the history of colonial African will have encountered innumerable portraits of African elites produced during the first half of the twentieth century, yet no book to date has focussed on these ubiquitous images. The author analyses the production and dissemination of such portraits and situates them in a complex and conflicted field of representations.
Moving between European and African perspectives, this book blends history with art history to provide insights into the larger processes that were transforming the French metropole and colonies during the early twentieth century.