African Photographer J. a. Green by Martha G Anderson

African Photographer J. a. Green by Martha G Anderson

J. A. Green (1873–1905) was one of the most prolific and accomplished indigenous photographers to be active in West Africa. This beautiful book celebrates Green's photographs and opens a new chapter in the early photographic history of Africa. Soon after photography reached the west coast of Africa in the 1840s, the technology and the resultant images were disseminated widely, appealing to African elites, European residents, and travelers to the region. Responding to the need for more photographs, expatriate and indigenous photographers began working along the coasts, particularly in major harbor towns. Green, whose identity remained hidden behind his English surname, maintained a photography business in Bonny along the Niger Delta. His work covered a wide range of themes including portraiture, scenes of daily and ritual life, commerce, and building. Martha G. Anderson, Lisa Aronson, and the contributors have uncovered 350 of Green's images in archives, publications, and even albums that celebrated colonial achievements. This landmark book unifies these dispersed images and presents a history of the photographer and the area in which he worked.

The pioneering role of JA. (Jonathan Adagogo) Green's photographic artistry is painstakingly resurrected and perceptively examined in this magisterial study, beautifully produced in large format by the Indiana University Press.

"[Green] practiced for only 14 years but the legacy of pictorial history that he created has been given proper focus by the impeccable, collaborative research and interpretative conceptualism of this volume of essays and commentaries edited with guidance from Prof. Alagoa.

"The publication of the book in 2017 has effectively peeled the layer of anonymity from Mr. Green who's work was published in leading publications across the world but who remained largely unknown for decades. . . This landmark book unifies these dispersed photographic images of Jonathan Adagogo Green and presents a history of the photographer and the area and times in which he worked."

Apart from bringing to light one of Africa's underexposed photographers, this much-needed volume offers profoundly generative theoretical frameworks for considering the roles photography has played both on and off the continent in the colonial period and beyond.

Martha G. Anderson is Professor Emerita of the School of Art and Design at New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University.
Lisa Aronson is Emeritus Professor of the Department of Art History at Skidmore College.