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Despite the increasing depth and quality of research related to photography in African contexts, little attention has been paid to African framings of environmental concerns. This paper focuses on select works by David Goldblatt, Santu Mofokeng, Mikhael Subotzky, Zwelethu Mthtethwa, and Pieter Hugo of South Africa, George Osodi and Charles Okereke of Nigeria, and Nyaba Leon Ouedraogo of Burkina Faso, to promote consideration of the visual strategies by which unsustainable environmental practices in African contexts are addressed, with a critical awareness of the circuits in which these images have been produced and circulated. Contexts of production and presentation profoundly influence how these images have been positioned as representative of an artist's style or emblematic of an environmental cause. Emphasis within this analysis is placed on landscapes, particularly those affected by dumping-the accumulation of e-waste, litter, asbestos, and other hazardous waste-to examine the contradictions and synergies between works with resonant visual subjects, to highlight the central role of landscape as an expressive device in shaping a nascent environmental discourse in the arenas of African art and visual culture, and to tease out factors influencing how these photographs and their environmental content are embraced or overlooked.
Environmental Visions
In Natural Visions: The Power of Images in American Environmental Reform, historian Finis Dunaway sought "to understand why the camera has played such a crucial role in American environmental politics and how it has shaped modern perceptions of the natural world" (2005:xvi). Dunaway identifies and traces long-standing links between photography and environ- mental conservation in one continental arena.1 From American Herbert W. Gleason in 1900 to Canada's Edward Burtynsky today, scenes of sublime natural beauty have been joined by documentation of human impacts on the landscape to create a deep and rich well of images that have shaped and continue to shape international discourses surrounding sustainable envi- ronmental practices. Artists like Chris Jordan and Subhankar Banarjee have continued to employ the finest sensibilities of reportage, documentary, and fine-art photography to explore issues ranging from the effects of cell-phone consumption and disposal to the visible impact of climate change on arctic landscapes. They show us how
artists and activists tried to challenge the utilitarian calculus of American politics by infusing public debate with beauty and passion. They turned to...