Poetics and Politics of Self-Representation in Photography by Africans and People of African Descent in Portugal

Abstract

This article analyses contemporary processes of decolonising the gaze and achieving visual self-determination in photography by Africans and People of African Descent in Portugal, viewing the image as a contested site where representation, memory, and visual culture intersect. The discussion is grounded in a phenomenon currently observable in Portugal and in various global contexts: the impulse towards the emancipation of the gaze among these subjects and their assertion of a place within visual cultures as a claim to equity in intercultural dialogues. This process manifests in the production of visual narratives as a form of struggle for visibility, recognition, and historical reparation — strategies here conceptualised as “self-representation” and “self-reparation” in contemporary photography. Drawing on a critique of photography as a colonial technology of control and erasure, supported by authors such as Hall, Mirzoeff, Azoulay, Sealy, and hooks, the article examines the exhibitions Africa: See You, See Me! and Álbuns de Família, as well as the artistic works of José Sérgio and Marta Pinto Machado, which activate self-representation as a strategy for constructing new collective sensibilities and contesting the position of the Black population within Portuguese visual culture, thereby positioning photography as a gesture of self-inscription and the reinvention of the common. The text concludes that both the exhibitions and the analysed works share an ethical and political solidarity, united by a common aspiration for visibility, recognition, and justice.