51Âþ»­

Valentine Nyamndon is a PhD research fellow in the faculty of Arts Design and Humanities of 51Âþ»­ in the Photography History Research Centre (PHRC). His research interrogates back drops of black and white photographs from 1958- 1980 in Cameroonian Photo studios with focus on production, usage, meaning, manipulation, and circulations. He has a background in Anthropology, Sociology and philosophy and an active member of the Pan Africa Anthropology Association (PAAA). He is also member of Friends of Archives (FAC) and African Networking for Language Documentation (ANet). In 2012-2013 he assisted in the digitalization of the ground sheets of the Cameroon Press Photos Archives (CPPA) facilitated by a Cameroon-Swiss collaboration and African Photo Initiative Non-Governmental Organisation at the University of Basel. As the project wraps up, Valentine uses the network gauges in Albums to demonstrate African photographic turns in a Conference on ‘Validating Visual Heritage in Africa…’ by the beginning of 2015. He represented 51Âþ»­ in an annual Conference in 2018 at the University of Calabar Nigeria where he contributed on visual subjugation using monochrome photos. The following year he presented the decay state of studio photography and returning photographers in Africa at the ECAS 2019 international conference at the university of Edinburg- Scotland on the theme of African connection and Disruption. He assisted on the PHOTODEMOS project at the University College -London and contributed on the politics of colours, objects, studio backdrops and production. He started lecturing as a part time lecturer in the Photography History research group of 51Âþ»­. Handling lectures, and Seminars in HIST 2026: ‘Visualizing the Modern world’ at the undergraduate level.

• Institute of History
• Institute of Art and Design

‘Black and white photos in the gutters and early photo studios goes oblivion in Cameroon.’ ECAS-2019  accessed on the 23/9/2020
Album/photo collections: A gauge of network of social relationship in Cameroon.
. Accessed on the 14/12/20

Forthcoming:
It is behind you! Foregrounding backgrounds in African Studio Photography, a case study from Cameroon.
One photographer four studios: Circulations of photographic backdrops in Africa, a case study from Cameroon.

• Photographic History
• Material Culture
• Visual Culture
• Networking and Circulations
• Cultural Anthropology
• Nutritional Anthropology
• Sociology (Deviance)
• Philosophy (continental Rationalism)

• Photography history
• Anthropology
• Philosophy
• Art History

• Msc. Cultural and Nutritional Anthropology, CATUC-Cameroon, 2015
• MA. Medical Anthropology, University of Yaounde I, CAMRN, 2008
• DIPLOMA. Philosophy, University of Yaounde I, CAMRN, 2000
• BSc. Sociology and Anthropology, University of Buea, CAMRN, 1997

HEI Scholarship scheme to International student 51Âþ»­- UK 2017
Pan African Anthropology award to Post Graduate students who graduated with a First Class honours degree 2015.
Pontifical Institute of Notre-Dame- Jerusalem- Israel student lead and Couching 2013

Pan Africa Anthropology Association (PAAA) conference Calabar- Nigeria "Photographic visual Subjugation in Africa.
ECAS-2019 - Connection and Disruption University Of Edinburg Scotland.
Photodemos Conference at the University College of London (UCL) "Politics of Colours and objects in photo backdrop production"

Title

Manufacturing a subversive reality: Backdrops and Photographic Manipulation in Cameroonian studio Photography.

Abstract

His project on the manufacturing of subversive reality, backdrops and Photographic manipulations in Cameroon seeks to answer the central question on the extent to which photographic backdrops as agency, involves sitters, painters, and photographers in the process of meaning and production, meaning and uses, as it circulates within and between regions (provinces) in Cameroon. The backdrop composition of Black and white photographs repertoires from 1958-1980 source from migrants, studio photographers, museum and archives present different categories of painted backdrop from pre-colonial to the post-colonial state. Guided by photo-elicitation, interview, and observation, the study resonates the arts and history of visual materials using a socio-cultural underpin of ‘Thick thing’ and ‘Meshwork’ as a gauge of entanglements. Following the interregional dissemination of photographic back drops acting as a synergistic platform in a multi ethnic and bicultural nation once united.

Professor Kelley Wilder and Dr Gil Pasternak