Photography as a Visual Historical Source for the History of French African Colonial Agronomy in the 1930s

The development of photographic techniques makes photography a popular visual information source and can be considered as a useful historical source. Thus, this article presents photography as the "era mirror" of French colonialism, reflecting one of the most important aspects of French politics, economy, and science in the 1930s – colonial agronomy. The article examines three vectors of this phenomenon: agronomic education, agronomic practices in the colonies, and official scientific events. Thereby it attempts to recreate part of the scientific everyday life of the "Second French Colonial Empire" – the Third Republic of France.