Devourers of gods: photography, black arts and the imperial gaze

Abstract

Starting with a photograph of a Yoruba helmet mask from Carl Einstein's Negerplastik, the article seeks to demonstrate that, contrary to what it may seem at first sight, no photography is transparent and that its visual assumptions are anchored in the experience of the imperial Western gaze over the other. It is about exploring the implications of a stance that considers photography not merely as a tool for the dissemination of the so-called primitive arts, but as a vector of a machinic becoming of these arts, devouring and producing images that express a specific and imperial sensibility with its historicity and its dilemmas.