PAUL JENKINS

Figure 5.3. "The Banso Chief,"                  Figure 5.4. No original caption. From an
Wilhelm Ziircher, photographer.                album, "Cameroon 1930-39, G. & B.
Tischhauser," photographer unknown.
I suggest that that the genre I am identifying shows five characteristics:
*    The images are clearly portraits of individuals, and not depictions of types, in this
case of typical office-holders.
0    They are close-ups, or semi-close-ups. With the exception of figure 5.4 (a chief with
entourage and the ornaments some carry), they all tend, more in some portraits, less in
others, toward intimacy and informality. Members of the chief's entourage are some-
times present, but this does not reduce the impact of the image as a portrait of a single
person.
*    They are at most only minimally posed. The spontaneity with which the subjects look
at the camera strongly suggests that the photographs are not solely "designed" by the
photographer. Rather they look like products of a personal, reciprocal relationship
between photographer and subject which is, on the whole, not conflictual. The facial
expressions are often "speaking," rather than being immobile or relaxed, and therefore
seem generated, at least to an equal degree, by the subject.
0    All are seated (except for figure 5.1, where it is not immediately clear whether the chief
is seated or leaning). But the objects on which the chiefs are sitting are in all but one
case covered and evidently of no importance to the photograph, although this is a region
with a strong culture of elite Stools.6 It is true that in figure 5.3 we are given a good view

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