Photographic Archives and Independence Days: Maryam Jafri in Conversation with Darren Newbury

The world order that emerged in the mid-twentieth century saw the rapid dissolution of European empires and in their place the foundation of a vast swathe of new nations across Africa and Asia. For photography, this period of geopolitical transformation was one in which the medium consolidated its leading position in the visual public sphere, nationally, internationally and transnationally. Impelled to imagine and unify new nations and to picture new forms of international collaboration, often driven by Cold War imperatives, the decolonizing world became a focus of photographic attention. In a conversation centered on the moment of independence, and informed by their artistic and historical research, Maryam Jafri and Darren Newbury explore the photographic archive of this period and its legacy for the present, considering questions of audience, artistic and historical interpretation, materiality, visual diplomacy, and futurity.