Max Pinckers: “State of Emergency”

Photobook Reviews, Episode 7 – by Kate Schultze

According to the Tate documentary photography “is a style of photography that provides a straightforward and accurate representation of people, places, objects and events, and is often used in reportage”. Being interested in the  “manipulative nature of photographs and how they can be used for ideological purposes” the Belgian photographer Max Pinckers examines the history of the Mau Mau freedom fighters and challenges the role of documentary storytelling and official records in the context of ongoing litigation and persistent demands for reparations.

"State of Emergency" is a documentary project developed over the last 10 years in collaboration with Mau Mau war veterans and Kenyan survivors of the brutal suppression during the last years of British colonial rule. The book combines fragmented colonial archives, photographs of architectural and symbolic remnants, mass grave sites, reenactments, and personal testimonies from those who lived through and survived the war.

The first two images in the book are a Mugumo tree, which was used by Mau Mau forest fighters to secretly communicate and the photograph of a letter sent to Max Pinckers by the chairman of the Mau Mau war veterans association. The letter discusses their excitement about the collaboration, but more importantly also how they plan to “utilise the information we create together [...] We also may want to use this material in court.”. 

Through in-person reenactments or ‘demonstrations,’ Pinckers and the veterans collectively (re)imagine the struggle for independence from British colonial rule in the 1950s. Given that many colonial archives were deliberately destroyed, concealed, or distorted, this project seeks to illuminate the overlooked aspects of history by creating ‘imagined records’ to fill the gaps left by missing historical documentation.

Just like fighting fire with fire, photography was once used as a tool to disseminate a picture of the Mau Mau driven by British colonial ideologies and is now used to show the world the inhuman treatment the colonialists perpetrated.

Max's take on documentary photography is very unique and I absolutely recommend to check out some of his other 10 (!!!) photobooks.