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Street market in Tambaccounda, Senegal
Photo: Djibril Drame
From the portrait of a young market vendor in Senegal to a shipwreck on the coast of Mauritania: clicking through the photography collection “Tender Photo” is like walking through a carefully curated photography museum. Since 2022, Nigerian author and critic Emmanuel Iduma has been regularly publishing his newsletter on African photography, aiming to “honour the work of a diverse group of African artists working in various fields of photography.”
“Tender Photo” has developed into an archive that is unique in its scope. “I'm constantly trying to expand my knowledge of photography, and especially photography from Africa,” explains Iduma in an interview about his project. Sat in front of his laptop at home in Norwich, United Kingdom, Iduma carefully weighs his words, wanting to be precise. It is clear that he has spent a significant amount of his career as a writer engaging with photography.
“I am constantly trying to expand my knowledge of photography, and especially photography from Africa”
Today his newsletter is politically charged: photography has played a key role in European colonialism in Africa, used as a means of domination. In an article, the writer Teju Cole refers to the medium as the “weapon of imperialism”. He goes on to quote the writer Yvonne Vera: “In Africa, as in most parts of the dispossessed, the camera arrives as part of the colonial paraphernalia, together with the gun and the bible.”
Asked about colonial ideology and photography in a 2017 interview, Iduma said: “More often than not, our bodies were pictured in denigrating ways. And how we were seen has shaped our perception of who we are. I hope for my work to begin by engaging with this complicity, but then surpassing and counteracting it.”
Indeed, "Tender Photo" provides a refreshingly new perspective on African photography and the continent itself. Many of the photographs offer a glimpse into life and society in Africa that diverges from stereotypical and colonial imagery. The newsletter escapes the trap of generalisation by avoiding broad statements and featuring a range of photographers from different countries working in different styles. “I'm always thinking about new strategies of how to select photographers, and about ways to engage with photographers from a wider range of countries.” Iduma does not have any restrictions on the photographs he includes: “I've tried to expand my understanding of what photography looks like and engage with photographers who work in all kinds of ways. That could be journalism, documentary, fashion, or art photography.” He will usually send a selection of images to the photographer, who makes the final decision on what will be included in the newsletter.
“In the first place, I wondered: how can African photographers contribute to conversations around the medium in ways that are not simply sociological?”
But Iduma’s project is not simply about representation. Asked about his motivation for focusing on photography from a specific continent, the writer hesitates. Initially he was wary of “highlighting photography that was geographical in scope”. While noticing that African photographers were underrepresented in most surveys about photography, it was important to him to not simply define his project by scarcity: “I was not only thinking, oh, African photography is not represented, and therefore, I must create something in relation to African photography. In the first place, I was simply thinking, how can African photographers contribute to conversations around the medium in ways that are not simply sociological?”
In "Tender Photo" this is partly achieved through the photographs themselves but also in how they are presented. The newsletter typically features one photograph by an African photographer, accompanied by a brief introduction by Iduma and a longer statement by the artist. Writing is at the heart of the project: “When I started the newsletter, I wanted to both converse with photographers and get them to speak about their work, but also propose a different way in which I could write about photography,” Iduma says. In his short introductions of the photograph, he points the reader to small details that could be easily dismissed. “By looking closely at an image, I can almost begin to get at what is not immediately presented, what is beyond my gaze, what my blind spots are,” Iduma says. He encourages his readers to follow suit.
“Photography is essential in preserving our history, telling our stories and gauging growth or stagnancy”
The longer statements by the photographers provide an understanding of the way the photograph was taken and the thought-process behind the image. Their writing often highlights the meaning and potential of the medium. In a February 2024 edition of the newsletter, photographer Amarachi Nnoli writes: “Photography is essential in preserving our history, telling our stories and gauging growth or stagnancy.”