Lusaka Street is an exploration of Zambia’s photographic past through the eyes of Zambian image-maker Alick Phiri. One of the few surviving black photographers that had access to the medium from the 1960s through the 1990s in Lusaka – a time when the use of the camera was restricted in the country – Phiri was trained at Lusaka’s Photo Art Studios before opening his own studio in Kanyama, making photography an integral part of his life. His unseen before photographic archive provides a rare insight into the everyday experience of people in the city. Even more importantly, his work is a document of the process of self-determination and self-representation of black Zambians at the time, recounted through situational portraits taken in the subject's domestic sphere. A testament to the relevance of lens-based media within Zambia’s geographical, historical and social context, a tool for reimagining the past and reading the present.
Alick Phiri is a 75-year-old Zambian photographer born in Umvurwi, Zimbabwe, in 1948. In 1965, at the age of 17, he learnt photography at Lusaka’s Photo Art Studios on Cairo Road. Phiri was the youngest studio assistant and was trained in photography and film development by the studio’s owner, Mr. Prabhubhai Patel. About twenty years later, in 1983, Phiri launched his own studio called Kwacha Photo Studio in Kanyama, Lusaka.
Phiri is one of the few surviving black Zambian photographers who is professionally trained and was practising from the 1960s through the 1990s in Lusaka, a profession that was barely accessible to most Zambians at the time. He photographed people outside their homes, with their families, or in the street. As a result, his photographic archive is a rare insight of the everyday experience of people in the city. It bears witness to Lusaka’s past and is a testament to the relevance of the photographic medium within Zambia’s geographical, historical and social context.
Through this book, Phiri makes a public debut of his signature street photographs, spotlighting the credibility and viewership of his work, as well as ensuring a reputable showcase of his archive, perhaps more pertinent now than ever.
