Jacques Toussele
Jacques Toussele | |
|---|---|
 Jacques Toussele in his last studio in Mbouda | |
| Born | 1939 (age 84–85) Bamessingué, Cameroon |
| Died | 30 June 2017. |
| Occupation | Photographer |
| Language | French |
| Citizenship | Cameroonian |
| Notable works | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Jacques Toussele was a Cameroonian photographer from Bamessingué near Mbouda in the Western Region of Cameroon.
There are several variant spellings of his Bamiléké name: Toussile, Tousellé, Tousselle, and Touselle are all attested.[1][2][3][4] The spelling on his identity card is Toussele without an accent (but pronounced in the French fashion (Tousselé, phonetically [tus sεlε]). When his work was exhibited at the Pitt Rivers Museum, an accented variant of his name was used.
Early life
[edit]Jacques Toussele was born in 1939[1] at Bamensingue.
Career
[edit]
The first Mbouda-born photographer working in Mbouda, he was taught photography by a Nigerian-born photographer. He worked in Bamenda at the height of the troubles but then returned to Mbouda where he worked since mid 1960s until his eventual retirement in the early 2000s. He died in Douala on Friday 30 June 2017.[citation needed]
Notable achievements
[edit]His work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Carleton College and was included in an exhibition on fashion at the Fowler Museum, Los Angeles opening late 2017.[5]
A small exhibition of his work was held at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford curated by Philip Grover & Chris Morton "Studio Cameroon: the everyday photography of Jacques Toussellé". 9 Nov 2007–29 July 2008.
His work was the subject of a major archiving project as part of the British Library’s Endangered Archive Programme.[6] Scanned copies of his works are available online via the BL link. His work is included in a major exhibition at the Fowler Museum at UCLA in the second half of 2021: See Photo Cameroon: Studio Portraiture, 1970s–1990s.
Jacques Toussele is one of 25 photographers with an entry in Amy Sall’s 2024 survey volume (see pp. 138-143)[7]
References
[edit]- ^ a b McKeown, Katie (2010-04-26). "Studio Photo Jacques: A Professional Legacy in Western Cameroon". History of Photography. 34 (2): 181–192. doi:10.1080/03087290903361506. ISSN 0308-7298. S2CID 192116485.
- ^ Zeitlyn, David (2010-10-14). "Representation/Self-representation: A Tale of Two Portraits; or, Portraits and Social Science Representations". Visual Anthropology. 23 (5): 398–426. doi:10.1080/08949460903472978. ISSN 0894-9468. S2CID 143478263.
- ^ Zeitlyn, David (2010-12-01). "Photographic Props / The Photographer as Prop: The Many Faces of Jacques Tousselle". History and Anthropology. 21 (4): 453–477. doi:10.1080/02757206.2010.520886. ISSN 0275-7206. S2CID 162318943.
- ^ Zeitlyn, David (2015). "16. Archiving a Cameroonian photographic studio". In Maja Kominko (ed.). From Dust to Digital: Ten Years of the Endangered Archives Programme. Open Book Publishers. pp. 531–546. doi:10.11647/obp.0052.16. ISBN 978-1-78374-062-8.
- ^ "African-Print Fashion Now! A Story of Taste, Globalization and Style March 26 – July 30, 2017" (PDF). Fowler Museum. 2017. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
- ^ "EAP054: Archiving a Cameroonian photographic studio". Endangered Archives Programme. British Library. Archived from the original on 19 February 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
- ^ Sall, Amy (2024). The African Gaze: Photography, Cinema and Power. London: Thames & Hudson.