The Fowler is pleased to welcome Sandrine Colard, scholar of modern and contemporary African art history and independent curator, for a program inspired by the images taken by Jacques Toussele, Joseph Chila, and Samuel Finlak, and featured in Photo Cameroon: Studio Portraiture 1970-1990s. Colard will draw on her extensive research in African photography to discuss the advent of the medium on the continent, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Through a comparative approach to early and modern African photography practices, she will highlight, among other things, the dual practice of photographers from that time who, like the photographers in our exhibition, produced not only state documents but more personal, intimate portraits, shaping the sitters’ national as well as private identities. Sandrine Colard is assistant professor of art history at Rutgers University-Newark. A researcher, independent curator, and historian of modern and contemporary African arts and photography, she divides her time between New York City and Brussels, Belgium. Having received her PhD from Columbia University in 2016, she has lectured internationally and is the author of multiple publications. Colard was the curator of the 6th Lubumbashi Biennale, Future Genealogies: Tales from the Equatorial Line (Lubumbashi, DRC, 2019). Her research has been supported by numerous fellowships, including those from Musée du quai Branly and the Ford Foundation. She is a 2021-22 Getty/ACLS fellow, working on her book about the history of photography in the colonial Congo. Lunch & Learn The Fowler’s Lunch & Learn series offers easily digestible explorations of charismatic objects from around the world. Join us to chew on some sustenance and feed your mind and soul during your lunch break.

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