Object Details
- Local Numbers
- EENG-V-16, 34A.
- General
- Title source: Index card based on photographer's notes.
- Local Note
- Typed index card reads, "T 2 Ash. Ashanti. Ghana, Kumasi area. Building with polychrome decorations. 7/1970. EE. neg.no. V-16, 34A." The card was written in 1977-79 by Archives staff using source provided by photographer.
- Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Collection Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Place
- Africa
- Ghana
- Topic
- Works of art in situ
- Mural painting and decoration
- Animals in art
- Animals in art -- Crocodiles
- Animals in art -- Fishes
- Animals in art -- Roosters
- Animals in art -- Turtles
- Cultural landscapes
- Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Culture
- Asante (African people)
- See more items in
- Eliot Elisofon Field collection
- Eliot Elisofon Field collection / Ghana
- Extent
- 1 Negatives (photographic) (b&w, 35mm.)
- Date
- 1970
- Archival Repository
- Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
- Identifier
- EEPA.1973-001, Item EEPA EENG 05893
- Type
- Archival materials
- Negatives (photographic)
- Black-and-white negatives
- Negatives
- Collection Citation
- Eliot Elisofon Field Collection, EEPA 1973-001, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution
- Collection Rights
- Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
- Genre/Form
- Black-and-white negatives
- Negatives
- Scope and Contents
- "Clearly it is important for many Asante artefacts and images to be witty: to express certain truisms concisely and pleasingly. Many of these images are thus absorbed into a wider system of debate and discourse: they suggest ideas about ideal forms of relationship and, by their public appearance, serve to keep these to the forefront of Asante consciousness. Today, the favoured image depicting a crocodile with a mudfish in its mouth has a range of proverbial meanings which turn upon problems of weak and strong living together. For gods the image is doubly appropriate: the power of god to man is likened to that of crocodile to mudfish, while the god's power to exist independently but also to enter partially the world of man is paralleled by the crocodile's amphibious abilities." [McLeod M.D., 1981: The Asante. British Museum Publications Ltd]. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon traveled to Africa from March 17, 1970 to July 17, 1970.
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
- Record ID
- ebl-1536870822481-1536871014425-3
