ANTHROPOS
99.2004: 427-434
The Quest for the Authentic
On the Heroics of African Visual Anthropology
Robert J. Gordon
Abstract. - Recent assessments of the future of visual an
thropology have suggested that with the increasing availability
of low cost digital technology the subdiscipline is on the
edge of a great leap forward. However, by analyzing another
ora, that of the interwar years, when the arrival of low cost
Photographic equipment was also held to herald a new era for
visual anthropology, this article suggests exactly the opposite.
Rather accessibility led to a decrease in use of visuals. This
article analyses some of the factors involved and suggests that
current assessments might be overly optimistic. [Africa, visual
anthropology, history of anthropology, fieldwork methodology,
cameras ]
Robert J. Gordon is a Research Associate of Lefapha la Antro-
Poloji, Yuniversithi Ya Freistata and Professor of Anthropology
and African Studies at the University of Vermont. Recent
Publications include: Law and Order in the New Guinea
highlands (Hanover 1985) (with M. Meggitt); The Bushman
iHyth (Boulder 1992); Picturing Bushmen (Athens 1997).
h his brilliant, albeit, ignored critique of Imperi-
a hsm, Mark Twain has King Leopold of Belgian
Congo fame soliloquize:
Hhe Kodak has been a sore calamity to us. The most
Powerful enemy indeed. In the early years we had no
Rouble in getting the press to “expose” the tales of the
’Mutilations as slanders, lies, inventions of busy-body
American missionaries and exasperated foreigners by
’he press’s help we got the Christian nations everywhere
’° turn an irritated and unbelieving ear to those tales and
Sa y hard things about the tellers of them. Yes, all things
Rout harmoniously and pleasantly in good days, and I
looked up to as the benefactor of a down-trodden
and friendless people. Then all of a sudden came the
crash! That is to say, the incorruptible Kodak and all
the harmony went to hell! The only witness I have
encountered in my long experience that 1 couldn’t bribe.
Every Yankee missionary and every interrupted trader
sent home and got one; and now oh, well, the pictures
get sneaked around everywhere, in spite of all we can
do to ferret them out and suppress them. Ten thousand
pulpits and ten thousand presses are saying the good
word for me all the time and placidly and convincingly
denying the mutilations. Then that trivial little Kodak,
that a child can carry in its pocket, gets up, uttering never
a word, and knocks them dumb! (1970: 68 [1905]).
Given anthropology’s strong roots in philanthro
pies like the Aborigines Protection Society, its
propensity, at least in Africa, to engage in what
has been termed the expose tradition, the relative
inexpense and skill required to use a camera, why
hasn’t photography been used more consistently
and extensively? This is a question that has been
raised by many, including most recently David
MacDougall (2001) who foresees that with the
advent of relatively inexpensive digital video ex
citing possibilities for visual anthropology.
This article addresses this question by focus
ing on another period when major advances in
film technology occurred that not only simpli
fied but also reduced the costs and thus made
these technologies more accessible, namely the
interwar years. My argument is simple: It sug
gests that MacDougall might be overly optimistic
because if we treat anthropology and especially
visual anthropology as an adventure which de
rives its value precisely from an attributed unique
“scarcity” value, then the ready access to improved