Africa Is a Country

Scarlet Lion

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Scarlet Lion

By
Sean Jacobs

The American documentary photographer and photojournalist, Glenna Gordon, talks on five photographers who influenced her work.

Image by Glenna Gordon.

I shot this short, no-frills interview in my office at The New School. The format is simple: The subject sits on a chair in my office while I point the iPhone at them. They decide what 5 things they want to talk to about. The first guest is Glenna Gordon, photographer and blogger based in Liberia. She happened to pass through New York City. Glenna decided to talk about her 5 favorite photographers.  First, Malick Sidibe; second three photographers from the PANOS Agency (Andrew McConnell, Robin-Hammond and Kieran-Dodds); then Tim Hetherington,  Krisanne Johnson; and, finally, Lynsey Adario.

Watch:

Some other notes: I did not want to add any props, so the video is accompanied by a list of references at the end of this post. I tried to make as little edits as possible. It was my first attempt.  I messed up the color at the end, but I’ll get this right over time. You may also get sea sick from the wobbly camera work (if you can call my holding a phone camera that).

For more on Glenna’s work, see here.

Further Reading

The sound of revolt

On his third album, Afro-Portuguese artist Scúru Fitchádu fuses ancestral wisdom with urban revolt, turning memory and militancy into a soundtrack for resistance.

O som da revolta

No seu terceiro álbum, o artista afro-português Scúru Fitchádu funde a sabedoria ancestral com a revolta urbana, transformando memória e militância em uma trilha sonora para a resistência.

Biya forever

As Cameroon nears its presidential elections, a disintegrated opposition paves the way for the world’s oldest leader to claim a fresh mandate.

From Cornell to conscience

Hounded out of the United States for his pro-Palestine activism, Momodou Taal insists that the struggle is global, drawing strength from Malcolm X, faith, and solidarity across borders.

After the uprising

Following two years of mass protest, Kenya stands at a crossroads. A new generation of organizers is confronting an old question: how do you turn revolt into lasting change? Sungu Oyoo joins the AIAC podcast to discuss the vision of Kenya’s radical left.

Redrawing liberation

From Gaza to Africa, colonial cartography has turned land into property and people into populations to be managed. True liberation means dismantling this order, not redrawing its lines.

Who deserves the city?

Colonial urbanism cast African neighborhoods as chaotic, unplanned, and undesirable. In postcolonial Dar es Salaam, that legacy still shapes who builds, who belongs, and what the middle class fears the city becoming.

Djinns in Berlin

At the 13th Berlin Biennale, works from Zambia and beyond summon unseen forces to ask whether solidarity can withstand the gaze of surveillance.

Colonize then, deport now

Trump’s deportation regime revives a colonial blueprint first drafted by the American Colonization Society, when Black lives were exiled to Africa to safeguard a white republic.