Photography and American Coloniality

<DIV>This book is the first to question both why and how the colonialist mythologies represented by the work of photographer Eliot Elisofon persist. It documents and discusses a heterogeneous practice of American coloniality of power as it explores Elisofon&rsquo;s career as war photographer-correspondent and staff photographer for <I>LIFE</I>, filmmaker, author, artist, and collector of &ldquo;primitive art&rdquo; and sculpture. It focuses on three areas: Elisofon&rsquo;s narcissism, voyeurism, and sexism; his involvement in the homogenizing of Western social orders and colonial legacies; and his enthused mission of &ldquo;sending home&rdquo; a mass of still-life photographs, annexed African artifacts, and assumed vintage knowledge. The book does not challenge his artistic merit or his fascinating personality; what it does question is his production and imagining of &ldquo;difference.&rdquo; As the text travels from World War II to colonialism, postcolonialism, and the Cold War, from Casablanca to Leopoldville (Kinshasa), it proves to be a necessarily strenuous and provocative trip.<BR /> &#160;</DIV>