Photographic Manchester University Press Rethinking Art's Histories- Photographic afterlives

This book explores the resurfacing of photographs from the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62) in contemporary art and photobooks by tracing some of the unexpected paths along which photographs travel and argues that contemporary archival art can equip viewers with the necessary tools for reading the broader archives of Algerian decolonisation.

‘Fundamental questions of archival memory, stewardship, and decolonization receive new treatment in this revelatory study from Katarzyna Falecka. Thinking alongside contemporary artists who engage the purloined image inheritance of the Algerian War of Independence, Photographic afterlives summons us to contemplate photographic histories from the “long present” of unfinished colonial disentanglement.’
—Anneka Lenssen, University of California, Berkeley

‘Through a rich and wide-ranging evidence base and the sophisticated application of theories of photography, Photographic afterlives makes an important intervention into how artists have grappled with narrating both the past and present.’
—Natalya Vince, University College, Oxford

Photographic afterlives explores the resurfacing of photographs from the Algerian War of Independence in contemporary art and photobooks. Since the 1980s, artists have increasingly drawn on archives of Algerian decolonisation, a turn that developed alongside restitution debates over France’s removal of Algerian archives and a rise in independent archiving practices in Northern Africa.

The book proposes that works by Zineb Sedira, Nadja Makhlouf, Dennis Adams, Sofiane Zouggar, Bruno Boudjelal, Lydia Ourahmane and others reframe the photographic archives of the war as sites of retrospective interpretation, expanding state-led restitution debates beyond questions of national sovereignty. By channelling family histories, gendered narratives of war, migratory experiences and affective encounters with history, these artworks reveal the multidirectionality of historical photographs from the war. Owing to its complex circulation routes and multiple iterations, photography escapes being rooted in the collective memory of any specific social group, complicating any fixed affinities between images and identities.

Tracing the unexpected paths along which photographs travel, Photographic Afterlives shows how contemporary archival art provides tools for engaging the broader archives of Algerian decolonisation in anticipation of their uncertain futures.

Katarzyna Falecka is a Lecturer in Art History at Newcastle University

Photographic afterlives explores the cultural, social and political contexts in which photographs from the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962) emerge in contemporary art and photobooks. It situates these practices against the backdrop of the wider archival turn in the humanities and the ongoing debates about archives in Algeria. Tracing the movement of historical photographs across multiple spaces, the book unravels the subsequent layers of meaning accrued by these images. It argues that as much as archival contemporary art performs an inquiry into the past, it equally speaks volumes about the distinct and ever-shifting needs of the present. Focused on the work of artists and photographers who excavate side-lined histories of the war, remediate well-known narratives and imagine histories that cannot be recovered from archives, Photographic afterlives shows the great potential of archives of decolonisation.