BOSTON, MA.- Postcards of Africa and Africans made from photographs produced in Africa between c. 1870 and the 1930s are typically understood as a part of colonial discourse, reflecting European stereotypes and featuring images tied to and enacting imperialistic political agendas. While postcards played a significant role in determining how the colonial world viewed Africa, this exhibition focuses on images that convey the agency of Africans in the photographic encounter both in front of and behind the camera. In fact, many successful African photographers participated in the lucrative postcard business. Photographic postcards expose Africans as cosmopolitan people, participating in creative exchange and imaginative engagement across lines of difference. Moreover, these photographic postcards reveal other histories that typically have been subverted and forgotten over time.

Early postcards expose how the lives of Africans unfolded in vibrant cities during the colonial era and how Africans fashioned their own cosmopolitan image of modernity. African rulers recognized the power of the image to legitimize their rule and used photography and photographic postcards for this purpose. Staged studio portraits taken by European and African photographers reveal information about complex historical events, including the history of the slave trade and historic forms of dress, while casting light on early developments in African photography. Finally, this exhibition historicizes mid to late twentieth century African portrait photographers, such as the Malian Seydou Keita (1923-2001), to demonstrate how he and other photographers continued earlier African photographic practices well into the late twentieth century.