Andrea Stultiens gives a presentation entitled 'TURNING POINTS
(IN A RESEARCH ON PHOTOGRAPHS – EBIFANANYI IN UGANDA)' at the PhDArts Conference at the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University.
In Luganda, the most widely-spoken minority language in the East African country of Uganda, the word used for photographs is 'ebifananyi'. However, unlike the etymology of the word ‘photographs’, 'ebifananyi' does not relate to light writings. 'Ebifananyi' instead means things that look like something else - likenesses. Since 2008, Stultiens has been working with photographs encountered in Uganda in an attempt to make historical photographic sources and collections available to general audiences. She attempts to understand the differences and similarities between 'photographs' and 'ebifananyi' through a study of both the historical and contemporary production and uses of pictures in Uganda.
Stultiens will focus on some of the moments that brought important insights to her research project, connecting collective making processes that were initiated by her with theoretical insights from the elds of comparative literature, philosophy, history, photographic studies and anthropology.