Moving still: Bicycles in Ranchhod Oza’s photographs of 1950s Stone Town (Zanzibar)

Contenu

Titre
Moving still: Bicycles in Ranchhod Oza’s photographs of 1950s Stone Town (Zanzibar)
Date
2020
Dans
Journal of African Cinemas
Résumé
Stone Town’s busy streets in the 1950s became a set for photographer Ranchhod Oza, proprietor of Capital Art Studio (1930–83). I was aesthetically drawn to the numerous bicycles portrayed in these Zanzibari images, just as Oza had been at an earlier time and place. I am less interested in reading the subject of bicycles as simply a sign of Zanzibari modernity, an accoutrement that projects a fantasy of advancement via technological things. Instead, I focus on their ability to reflect various material aspects of daily life in Stone Town. Some bicycles carry people, others transport things, while still others appear as stage props, leaning up against walls while waiting (im)patiently for their owners to return. Yet in all these Oza images, they are moving still, ready to reach another chosen destination. What does the content of bicycles say about Oza’s photographic style? Can these bicycles potentially speak to Zanzibar’s placeness as a cosmopolitan Indian Ocean port city?
Langue
eng
volume
12
numéro
2
pages
191-211
doi
10.1386/jac_00036_1
issn
1754-9221, 1754-923X
Titre abrégé
Moving still

Gupta, Pamila, “Moving still: Bicycles in Ranchhod Oza’s photographs of 1950s Stone Town (Zanzibar)”, 2020, bibliographie, consulté le 21 décembre 2024, https://ibadica.org/s/bibliographie/item/23622

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