Zambia. 2016
Kerstin Hacker
Kerstin Hacker is a photographer, practice-based researcher and academic based in Cambridge, UK.
Kerstin’s artistic practice based research explores how the un-learning of established documentary photographic practices and the engagement with collaborative, slow research methods can dismantle an imagined visual familiarity with the African continent and can overcome the perceived 'otherness' of its citizens. Throughout her research Kerstin is collaborating with emerging photographers from Zambia. Together they develop strategies to contribute to a changing perception, representation and establish visual self-governance. She is exploring connections between Zambia’s photographic history, which is influenced by colonialism, socialism and most recently capitalism, and the current emerging visual practices in the country. Her long-term interests explore the use of artistic collaborative practice research to empower emerging artists from the global South.
Between 2009 and 2012 she received a British Council Educational Partnership in Africa Grant for a collaboration with the University of Zambia and since 2017 she is a Fellow of the Centre for Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP). In 2021 she was awarded the collaborative Affect and Colonialism WebLab Fellowship from the Freie Universität Berlin together with two Zambian photographers. Most recently she was awarded a prestigious Cambridge Visual Cultures Fellowship at Cambridge University together with a Zambian curator.
Kerstin was born in Germany and moved to Prague, Czech Republic in 1990, where she received a BA (Bakalaureát) in 1993 and MA (Magistr) in 1995 from FAMU, University of the Applied Arts. During her studies she was awarded Female Photojournalist of the Year (Germany) in 1993 and the Alexia Foundation Award (US) in 1995. In 1996 she moved to the UK and worked as a freelance photographer for national and international clients including The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian and Non-Governmental Organisations including Sight-Savers International, Comic Relief and Save the Children. Kerstin is currently completing a practice-based PhD 'Shooting in Zambia: (Re)negotiating Zambia's Colonial Library Through Photographic Practice'.
Kerstin is a passionate educator and has been leading undergraduate and post-graduate photography courses at the Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University since 2008.
Current Research Project and Exhibition
Umupashi bwa Namfumu - The Spirit of the Queen (2022)
Collaborative exhibition with Edith Chiliboy and Patrick Chilaisha
This virtual exhibition explores a critical point in Zambia’s history that still influences how the country sees itself and is seen by others. This point is the arrival of Dan Crawford, a missionary from Scotland, in 1889.
Dan Crawford grew up in Gourock, a small seaside town along the River Clyde near Glasgow. He joined a budding congregation of Plymouth Brethren, a conservative circle of Christians, who rejected established churches like the Church of Scotland. The bible studying groups are fiercely independent churches and are committed to evangelise all over the world.
Dan Crawford, inspired by David Livingstone and Frederick Stanley Arnot, left Gourock at the age of nineteen to become a missionary in Central Africa, in an area that is now the borderland between Congo and Zambia.
This exhibition explores how the arrival of Christianity changed Bemba society by undermining matrilineal societal structures and introducing patriarchal, Christian and colonial values.
Since the arrival of Christianity through these early missionaries, the ‘new’ faith has established itself firmly in the region and pre-Christian, matrilineal history has been actively suppressed by the church.
The exhibition reconstructs with the help of elderly women an erased part of history, a history that isn't taught in Zambian schools, a way of life before the arrival of Christian missionaries, that is now mainly told through oral tradition. The exhibition tells the story of a queen who led her people from the Congo across lakes, rivers and land to settle down in what is now Northern Zambia, before the missionaries erased the memory of her.
Publications
Hacker, K., 2022. Us in Relation to the Universe - Collaborative North-South Photographic Practice Research in Radical Pedagogy and the Photographic Image: Photography and Culture
Stories of Kalingalinga, 2020
Uncertain States: Issue X, 2019
Photomonitor, 2018 - Kerstin Hacker: Generation Z. Reviewed by Helen James
Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity
Fostering Visual Self-Governance in Zambia - CUSP Blog
Photomonitor - First Moments: A text in response to a photograph by Kerstin Hacker
L'oeil De La Photographie - The Eye of Photography
Einsame Heimat / Osaměli ve Vlasti
Academic Paper Presentation
Association for African Studies in Germany Conference, University of Freiburg, 2022, PhotoCovidZambia - Reimag(in)ing disease in Zambia
European Conference of African Studies, Edinburgh University, 2019, The potential of progressive artistic collaborations – Diversifying photographic narratives in Zambia
British Academy symposium, University of Leeds, 2018 Expert Panel, Contested Discourses of Africa Rising: The struggle for control of the image of the foreign partner
ASAUK 2018 Conference, University of Birmingham, 2018: The colonial library, the 'uncited' image and the rise of visual self-governance in Zambia: Photographing Generation Z
Bridging Gaps: National Identity in Persona, Branding, and Activism, University of Western Australia Perth, Australia, 2017: Fostering Visual Self-Governance in Zambia
Solo Exhibitions
Art at ARB, CRASSH, Cambridge, UK: Generation Z: October - December 2018
Magdalene College, Cambridge, UK: Inspire Dialogue: September 2017
Henry Tayali Gallery, Lusaka, Zambia: Generation Z: August 2017
Changing Spaces, Cambridge, UK: Maternity Ward: October 2015
Adalbert Stifter Verein, Munich, Germany: Einsame Heimat: December 2003
Susice Town Museum, Czech Republic: Einsame Heimat: September 2000
Zwiesel Town Museum, Germany: Einsame Heimat: October 1999
Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, England: Russia, China, East Turkestan, Tibet, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan: April/May 1998
Maternity Hospital, Prien, Germany: Maternity Hospital: January 1995
Graphics Gallery, Hodonin Museum, Czech Republic: China, East-Turkestan, Tibet, Mongolia: February 1995
Cultural Centre, Ministry of Culture, Tashkent, Uzbekistan: China, East Turkestan, Tibet, Mongolia: November 1995
Gallery Jungmann, Liberec, Czech Republic: China, East-Turkestan, Tibet: February 1994
Gallery Shellenberger, Portland, Maine, USA: Maternity Hospital: May 1993
Gallery of the Academy for Photodesign, Munich, Germany: Maternity Hospital: October 1993
FAMU, Prague, Czech Republic: Home for handicapped Children in Prague „Jedlickuv Ustav“: June 1991
Group Exhibitions
Umupashi bwa Namfumu - The Spirit of the Queen, Affect and Colonialism Web Lab, Freie Universität Berlin
Stories of Kalingalinga, Wayi Wayi Art Gallery, Livingstone: October 2020 (postponed)
Stories of Kalingalinga, Henry Tayali Gallery, Lusaka, Zambia: August 2020 (postponed)
Stories of Kalingalinga, Centre of African Studies, Cambridge University: February - July 2020
Stories of Kalingalinga, Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge: January - February 2020
The Archive and the Contested Landscape, Festival of Ideas, Cambridge: October 2018
Festival der Fotografischen Bilder, Regensburg, Germany: October 2017 - March 2018
Henry Tayali Gallery, Lusaka, Zambia: Konse Konse (European Union): May 2017
Freilichtmuseum Massing, Germany: Project Junge Bäuerin (Young female farmers): March 1998
Prague, Czech Republic: Prague House of Photography: Tibet: March 1995
Ljubljana, Slovenia: International Week of Photography: June 1995
London, UK: Bus Gallery Metropolis: October 1994
Berlin, Germany: International Children Photography: November 1994
Herten, Germany: Exhibition for the Prize for Young Photojournalism: September 1993
Brno, Czech Republic: Photography of the Prague Film Faculty: May 1992
Leeds, UK: Documentary Photography of the Prague Film Faculty: October 1991
Awards
Best Paper Award, Bridging Gaps: National Identity in Persona, Branding, and Activism Conference, Center for Media and Celebrity Studies, Perth, Australia, 2017
Made A Difference Awards, Student Union, Anglia Ruskin University, UK, 2017
Made A Difference Award, Student Union, Anglia Ruskin University, UK, 2015
Association of Photographers' Lecturer Award, UK, 2010, shortlist
Maxim - Winner of the FAMU Festival Award, Czech Republic, 1994
World Peace and Cultural Understanding Prize- runner up , Alexia Foundation, USA, 1994
Female Photojournalist of the Year, Germany, 1993
FAMU Festival, second prize, Czech Republic, 1992
Grants and Sponsorship
Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University - Research Funding 2016-2019
British Council: Educational Partnership in Africa Grant 2009 - 2012
Czech - German Foundation for the Future 2002
Robert Bosch Foundation 2002
Sponsored by Leica GmbH 2000 to 2002
Sponsored by Canon Europe 1997
Sponsored by AGFA 1995 to 2002
Sponsored by Fujifilm 1994 to 2002