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Re-tracing representations and identities in twentieth century South African and African photography: Joseph Denfield, regimes of seeing and alternative visual histories

  • Authors: Mnyaka, Phindezwa Elizabeth
  • Date: 2012
  • Subjects: Historical museums -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Natural history , Photography -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (History)
  • Identifier: vital:11536 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/540 , Historical museums -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Natural history , Photography -- South Africa
  • Description: The thesis examines the photographic collection of Joseph Denfield, an archivist and historian who experimented with photography over a twenty-year period. The study is located within the field of critical visual studies that focuses on historical photography in its depiction of identities and groups in the context of social change. The thesis pays attention to the manner and extent to which Denfield participated in regional visual economies at various moments during his photographic career in order to establish his contribution towards a visual history in Africa and more broadly Southern Africa. It follows Denfield’s career trajectory chronologically. It begins with a study of his photographic work in Nigeria which was oriented around so-called ‘pagan tribes’ and which was framed within the discourse of ethnography. It then pays attention to his growth as an artist in photography that resulted from years of exhibiting in salons. I read these photographs and texts in relation to his earlier work in Nigeria given the extent to which he drew on anthropological discourses. It is through his involvement with photographic art circles that Denfield developed as a historian as a result of his research into the history of photography and regional visual histories. This took the form of both unearthing historical photographs as well as photographing historical sites to construct the past in particular ways through the visual. At each stage he translated these histories into public forms of representation and power thus he figures among a small group of ‘colonial’ photographers that shaped the visual economy of Southern Africa. Through a detailed study of his work, the thesis thus aims to re-think through new dimensions of visual culture.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2012

Butterworth, 1980

All Saints Hospital Golden Jubilee : All Saints, 1979

Evening cooking fires: eLuhewini, 1976

Inspection of bride and attendants : Ngqokotho, 1975

Teenage boys with axes : Ngqokotho, 1975

Teenage boys, 1975

Tsomo Dam, 1975

Cattle against the Drakensberg foothills, 1973

Zulu dancing troupe performing at All Saints: All Saints, 1973

Gleaning the harvest, 1971

Headloads of mealies, 1971

Stickplay : Khanyi, 1971

All Saints Church Choir : All Saints, 1970

Beadworkers at All Saints Home Industries : All Saints, 1970

Burning of the abakwetha's initiation hut: Khanyi, 1970

Female initiate in seclusion hut : Mbekeni, 1970

Female initiate secluded : Mbekeni, 1970

Service of Confirmation : All Saints, 1970

The Reverend Hannington Gcanga : All Saints Mission, 1970

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