Pictured exchanges, quiet conversations and silenced voices: listening to the US information agency photographic collection

In the late 1950s and 1960s, in the context of decolonization, the US government initiated a campaign of photographic diplomacy in Africa, through the United States Information Agency (USIA). The photography that emerged served as an index and agent of relations. The photographs frequently pictured subjects in conversation and were meant to be talked about; yet beyond abstract ideas of friendship and mutuality, these exchanges were rarely recorded. This article offers a preliminary set of observations on listening to the photographs, attending to the interplay between speech and silence in the USIA collection; those sonic elements – primarily voices – which are invoked in many photographs and documents, but barely audible in the archive. This article is part of the Special Section: (Re)Sounding Images.