Getty vs. Ghana

Maryam Jafri

2012

Mixed Media
Materials: Archival ink jet, black and white photos and frames texts

Collection: Courtesy of the artist.

Getty vs. Ghana, a series of photographs from Ghana’s Ministry of Information, showing the country gaining its independence in 1957, are compared to the same photos in the archives of Getty Images. Jafri’s juxtaposition reveals a number of disparities between these sets of images, such as erroneous dating, omissions and downright manipulations, thereby highlighting the political aspects of a seemingly neutral act of archiving. With its pared-down display aesthetics reminiscent of Conceptual Art, this work and others in the same series, critique Western presumptions of ownership over colonial history.

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