Paper short abstract:

This paper explores aspects of materiality, seriality and visuality in colonial image archives, suggests the relevance of negative strips and their direct prints (contact sheets) and, as such, reflects on praxis in the colonial darkroom.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores aspects of materiality, seriality and visuality in colonial image archives, in particular the potential and relevance of negative strips and their direct prints (contact sheets). The production of photo archives throughout much of the 20th century rests in part on practices and visual communications by and between photographers and protagonists in viewing, selecting, processing, reproducing and archiving "raw" images. Drawing on colonial photo archives from the Basler Afrika Bibliographien and examples of portraiture from apartheid Namibia, the paper reflects on praxis in the colonial darkroom and suggests a closer reading "along" negative strips, their cuts and edges.