Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses the PhotoCovidZambia project, which explores decolonial photographic making methods during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fourteen Zambian photographers are reimag(in)ing affective visual responses to COVID-19 by countering propagandistic visuals of previous pandemics in the global South

Paper long abstract:

The documentation of poor health in colonial subjects was a sub-genre of British colonial propaganda apparatus, in which the camera was an indispensable tool. The resulting images established a visual cannon that still visually informs our understanding of pandemics in the Global South today. When in 2020 COVID-19 swept around the world, the pandemic provided a unique opportunity to develop the photographic project PhotoCovidZambia, which aimed to counter this prevailing, image-based pandemic narrative.

In collaboration with the Zambian National Visual Arts Council, we brought together fourteen photographers interested in intellectually engaging with the making process and developing an alternative visual vocabulary for a pandemic on the continent. Embracing slow methodology and affect theory, we encouraged weekly conversations, which became a method of investigation in themselves. The project allowed the participants to challenge the othering of suffering experienced in previous pandemics that swept through Zambia.

The paper examines previous representations of pandemics and the profound impact these historic images had on the photographers and the photographed communities. By focusing on visual affect, the photographers generate a new and deeper understanding of the importance of reimag(in)ing illness and disease through personal practices. The new images skilfully break the links to the colonial gaze of the African pandemic photographs. Their images no longer claim to represent Zambia during a pandemic. Instead, they acknowledge the individual experience of the artists and invite a multiplicity of access points.

The PhotoCovidZambia project has been running uninterrupted since April 2020.