{"id":{"repo_id":"de-montfort","oai_identifier":"oai:dora.dmu.ac.uk:2086/23118"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/de-montfort/oai:dora.dmu.ac.uk:2086/23118","repository":{"repo_id":"de-montfort","name":"De Montfort University","base_url":"https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Photographic backdrops in Cameroon: A study of intra-interregional and intergenerational circulations.","abstract":"This study is about photographic backdrops in the Cameroon visual scene, from the 1950s to 1980s, a time in which Cameroon moved from a divided state to a unified nation state. Several different forms of these backdrops were identified and mapped out intra- interregionally and intergenerationally amongst different people, places, and cultures. Researching the special materials that compose backdrops has foregrounded photo backdrops’ active voice in and out of the intra-interregional and intergenerational studio as a cultural material which interweaves and politicizes sitters at production, use, and circulation. It allows an investigation of the multi-layered and dense socio-cultural composition of backdrops as a colonial aspect of the complex nature of an ‘African photo studio’ in the post-colonial state. The thesis considered a wide geographic mapping of backdrops, providing a bigger picture of its curvilinear and multi-directional matted socio-cultural network. It sheds light on the synergy between the sitter, artist, and photographer in backdrop production as a material base of its connection of families to backdrops, the immediate society, and those of external nations. This approach situates the Cameroon visual scene within the larger photographic industry using a material, visual and anthropological bottom-up perspective to interrogate sitters, photographers, and artists. Substantial interviews and oral histories with photographers and backdrop painters, provided valid and reliable data through participant observation, photo-elicitation and interviews engaging photo backdrop stakeholders. These methodological approaches expand current debates and establish photo backdrops’ active voice in form and material of painted backdrops as an entangled, multi-layered, and matted intra-interregional and intergenerational object in Cameroon. This dissertation argues that the production, use, and circulation of intra-interregional and intergenerational backdrop material interlaces people and places giving rise to other forms of objects. This sort of backdrop entanglement has presented a photographic material sense of the Francophone and Anglophone unification and accommodation from that of hate, division, assimilation, and rejection. A wider geographic mapping with backdrops has offered a sense of entangled networks of a village connecting with other villages, the city, country, and the world at large using photographic backdrops. As a first study in anglophone Cameroon, it has presented a material diversity through the backdrop identified as a reflection of the diversity of African studios in the colonial and post-colonial state. Backdrops identified in this study form materials for heritage culture and future collaboration as entangled objects of socio-cultural diversity amidst other forms which accommodate resistance to changes.","abstract_html":"This study is about photographic backdrops in the Cameroon visual scene, from the 1950s to 1980s, a time in which Cameroon moved from a divided state to a unified nation state. Several different forms of these backdrops were identified and mapped out intra- interregionally and intergenerationally amongst different people, places, and cultures. Researching the special materials that compose backdrops has foregrounded photo backdrops’ active voice in and out of the intra-interregional and intergenerational studio as a cultural material which interweaves and politicizes sitters at production, use, and circulation. It allows an investigation of the multi-layered and dense socio-cultural composition of backdrops as a colonial aspect of the complex nature of an ‘African photo studio’ in the post-colonial state. The thesis considered a wide geographic mapping of backdrops, providing a bigger picture of its curvilinear and multi-directional matted socio-cultural network. It sheds light on the synergy between the sitter, artist, and photographer in backdrop production as a material base of its connection of families to backdrops, the immediate society, and those of external nations. This approach situates the Cameroon visual scene within the larger photographic industry using a material, visual and anthropological bottom-up perspective to interrogate sitters, photographers, and artists. Substantial interviews and oral histories with photographers and backdrop painters, provided valid and reliable data through participant observation, photo-elicitation and interviews engaging photo backdrop stakeholders. These methodological approaches expand current debates and establish photo backdrops’ active voice in form and material of painted backdrops as an entangled, multi-layered, and matted intra-interregional and intergenerational object in Cameroon. This dissertation argues that the production, use, and circulation of intra-interregional and intergenerational backdrop material interlaces people and places giving rise to other forms of objects. This sort of backdrop entanglement has presented a photographic material sense of the Francophone and Anglophone unification and accommodation from that of hate, division, assimilation, and rejection. A wider geographic mapping with backdrops has offered a sense of entangled networks of a village connecting with other villages, the city, country, and the world at large using photographic backdrops. As a first study in anglophone Cameroon, it has presented a material diversity through the backdrop identified as a reflection of the diversity of African studios in the colonial and post-colonial state. Backdrops identified in this study form materials for heritage culture and future collaboration as entangled objects of socio-cultural diversity amidst other forms which accommodate resistance to changes.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Nyamndon, Valentine"],"institution":"De Montfort University","degree_name":"PhD","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-10","date_published":"2021-10","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:18:42Z","subjects":[],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstreams/f6a5d215-47a8-408e-80ec-3fdc7d75a7ac/download"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":null,"outbound_label":null,"outbound_source":null},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.sponsor","label":"Sponsor","values":["DMU Scholarship"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Nyamndon, Valentine"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2021-10"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.department","label":"Dc Publisher Department","values":["Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["De Montfort University"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2086/23118"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis or dissertation"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["PhD"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstreams/f6a5d215-47a8-408e-80ec-3fdc7d75a7ac/download"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstreams/12073b9a-af25-4957-8da0-4985c55a5a9a/download"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This study is about photographic backdrops in the Cameroon visual scene, from the 1950s to 1980s, a time in which Cameroon moved from a divided state to a unified nation state. 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