Exhibiting Photographers
Browse exhibiting photographers from Africa.
Exhibiting Photographers
Browse exhibiting photographers from africa
Joël Williams
Côte d'Ivoire
Joël Williams
Côte d'Ivoire
A key player in the cultural world of the Ivory Coast and French-speaking Africa, a look and a touch of authenticity, a unique and heterogeneous universe, an "afro-modern" touch where audacity meets beauty...
The unexpected, the contrasts, the colours, everything comes together to make his photos unique works, which carry a sort of identity of their own, the Joel Williams signature.
Photographer and painter, "Joe" has always been "immersed in an artistic atmosphere".
"I come from an artistic family of sorts. My father put on a musical in the 90s, so music and the stage have always been a part of my life. Art came much later with my interest in culture and painting.
Joel grew up in a world of artists and became an artist himself, attracted by the beautiful images in magazines, he says.
However, he encountered photography years later, almost by compulsion. Having started his own cultural magazine, he was faced with a great challenge: to find the rare pearl, the photographer who would be able to transcribe his ideas and concepts. He was forced to take up photography himself, as there were very few photographers who were able to materialise his ideas. He started learning photography with his father's camera.
Over the years, the feedback has been unanimous: Joel Williams has an interesting artistic eye.
The reason? His approach is based on an offbeat artistic direction, with perspectives, angles and settings designed to faithfully reproduce the original idea. And to do this, he gives himself the means to achieve it.
In 2015, he signed his first exhibition in collaboration with Landry Watonn at the Salle noire.
This multi-hatted photographer will soon be showing us, in a collector's exhibition, the most beautiful photos of MILC magazine, for which he has signed almost all the covers, in addition to being its artistic director.
When the unexpected meets the beautiful
When the unexpected meets the beautiful
Kader Diaby
Côte d’Ivoire,
Kader Diaby
Côte d’Ivoire,
Born in 1991 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, Kader Diaby lives and works there today. Kader Diaby is an Ivorian photographer, art director and designer. After studying management control in Morocco, he developed his own brand of ready-to-wear clothing and practiced artistic photography while working as an auditor for a multinational company in Abidjan. In 2017, Kader Diaby followed a photography
course with the Klaym organization, in collaboration with the Zurich University of the Arts in Switzerland. He belongs to a generation of young photographers who have encountered the art of photography through social networks, notably instagram.
An inspired and polymorphous creator, Kader Diaby shares his poetry and sensitivity both through fashion and his photographs.
The question of the concordance between our intimate and collective identities inhabits his work and resonates more broadly with a redefinition of the plural ways of being African today, in order to move from a subjugated identity to a chosen identity.
Kader Diaby’s photographs, like visual tales, tell us a story and thus manage to summon up all the subtleties of our lives, to go beyond stereotypes to reach the essence of our particularities as well as of what brings us together.
Death in particular, the universal horizon of life, is an integral figure in some of her series, which she tints with her fantastic, fascinating and mysterious aura. Since 2019, the artist has been represented by the Number 8 gallery.
Série Miria
Miria, iyé i yèrè gniniga The visual story of questioning one's identity. Our world is not as we once knew. Some struggle to hold on to their cultures and their values in the midst of an evolving world, while others embrace the changes in merging cultures and values. As a result I sometimes face a dilemma; asking myself, Who am I? What place do I hold in society? How do I stand out as an individual in a chameleonic culture? What is my purpose? I am a young Ivorian born in the metropolitan city of Abidjan. A city with many cultural and spiritual diversities that yet still stand as one ethnicity; being Ivorian. Growing up, my cultural identity was influenced by various television programs; European, American, Asian, and the great emergence of the internet. As a result of great technologies, I now speak both English and French, even better than my native tongue. So I ask myself, have I lost my cultural identity? Or is this my new identity for the sake of the merging of cultures? In the mundane I work in finance, and my love for the arts lead me to photography, designing, and art directing. I am constantly pulled in between these two opposite worlds often feeling as though society forces me to choose between them; As if they cannot coexist as reflections of what makes me who I am; As if one can only exist with just one label. So now, I look at myself in the mirror, and really ask myself, what’s it worth when I’m faced with my unquestionable end? For as long as I can remember I’ve had recurring thoughts, questions, about death. Meditating not on its many mysteries, because I am convinced that there is life after death; some justifying it with the idea of reincarnation, others with the existence of heaven and hell. Whatever the belief, the commonality is that the life we live now, will determine the life we’ll have after death. This series titled “Miria, iyé i yèrè gniniga” which means in the West African Malinké dialect, “think, and ask yourself about yourself”, is the illustration of my questioning of my social and cultural identity, which brings me back in introspection on the meaning of my current life, while facing the reality that an unquestionable death is to come. So I ask myself, will the self-questioning lead to living an honorable life or Do we strive to live an honorable life without questioning? “Miria, iyé i yèrè gniniga” is the journey of embracing the realities of life and death.
Série Miria
Miria, iyé i yèrè gniniga The visual story of questioning one's identity. Our world is not as we once knew. Some struggle to hold on to their cultures and their values in the midst of an evolving world, while others embrace the changes in merging cultures and values. As a result I sometimes face a dilemma; asking myself, Who am I? What place do I hold in society? How do I stand out as an individual in a chameleonic culture? What is my purpose? I am a young Ivorian born in the metropolitan city of Abidjan. A city with many cultural and spiritual diversities that yet still stand as one ethnicity; being Ivorian. Growing up, my cultural identity was influenced by various television programs; European, American, Asian, and the great emergence of the internet. As a result of great technologies, I now speak both English and French, even better than my native tongue. So I ask myself, have I lost my cultural identity? Or is this my new identity for the sake of the merging of cultures? In the mundane I work in finance, and my love for the arts lead me to photography, designing, and art directing. I am constantly pulled in between these two opposite worlds often feeling as though society forces me to choose between them; As if they cannot coexist as reflections of what makes me who I am; As if one can only exist with just one label. So now, I look at myself in the mirror, and really ask myself, what’s it worth when I’m faced with my unquestionable end? For as long as I can remember I’ve had recurring thoughts, questions, about death. Meditating not on its many mysteries, because I am convinced that there is life after death; some justifying it with the idea of reincarnation, others with the existence of heaven and hell. Whatever the belief, the commonality is that the life we live now, will determine the life we’ll have after death. This series titled “Miria, iyé i yèrè gniniga” which means in the West African Malinké dialect, “think, and ask yourself about yourself”, is the illustration of my questioning of my social and cultural identity, which brings me back in introspection on the meaning of my current life, while facing the reality that an unquestionable death is to come. So I ask myself, will the self-questioning lead to living an honorable life or Do we strive to live an honorable life without questioning? “Miria, iyé i yèrè gniniga” is the journey of embracing the realities of life and death.
Lina Mensah
Togo
Lina Mensah
Togo
Lina MENSAH is a Togolese photographer, born on December 1, 1994 in Lomé, Togo. She holds a Master II in Education Sciences. Today, Lina specializes in portrait photography techniques and tricks that embody vibrant emotions. The artist presented at the French Institute of Lomé in 2020, her series of photos entitled "Being alive" as part of the "Night of Ideas". Lina also realized in 2021 an exhibition "Nyonu XXI" (Woman of the 21st century) at the Institut Supérieur Don Bosco in Togo. The Don Bosco Higher Institute in Togo. In Ivory Coast, she presented her series "Abidjanaise de nuit". At the Adama Tounkara Museum in collaboration with the Goethe Institute in Abidjan. In the same city, she presented her creation "School in Togo" at the French Institute as part of the 2nd Pan-African Festival of Visual Arts. Panafrican Festival of Art Photography (Festipha). She is a member of the African Federation of Photographic Art (FAAP). With the support of the French Institute of Lomé, she trained in show photography. And thanks to her project Pro-photo this artist joins her passion to her training to teach photography to others. On the occasion of the 14th biennial of arts in Dakar, Lina exhibits the photo series "Afuma", the Togolese stilt walkers.
AFUMA: The intrepid Togolese Stilt Walkers
This photo series is the result of a collaboration between a photographic artist and acrobats. It paints the portrait of a group of young people who work hard to popularize and perpetuate an ancestral practice out of the ordinary, that of stilt walkers. Indeed, the tradition of stilt-walkers is kept alive in the plateau region, precisely in Atakpamé, the city of seven hills. In fact it is faithfully transmitted from generation to generation, which is demonstrated here through the group "Afuma, stilt walkers of Togo" native of this city, which for a while has been multiplying tours of shows around the world to enhance this tradition that it contributes to enrich and transmit. "Afuma" refers in Ifè, the language spoken in the region of Atakpamé, to the name of the aerial fern that grows on bamboo, the raw material used to make stilts. The ancestral art of stilts is nourished by spirituality, it thus takes its source in religion and traditional practices. However the stilt walker must strictly respect certain rules and prohibitions, respect the environment and pay attention to several other principles of life that have not been revealed to us. The use of symbols on the face is reminiscent of specific masks and movements would refer to practices inherited from forest creatures, including fairies. (Source: Cyriaque Kodjo Noussouglo, teacher-researcher in philosophy of art at the University of Lomé)
AFUMA: The intrepid Togolese Stilt Walkers
This photo series is the result of a collaboration between a photographic artist and acrobats. It paints the portrait of a group of young people who work hard to popularize and perpetuate an ancestral practice out of the ordinary, that of stilt walkers. Indeed, the tradition of stilt-walkers is kept alive in the plateau region, precisely in Atakpamé, the city of seven hills. In fact it is faithfully transmitted from generation to generation, which is demonstrated here through the group "Afuma, stilt walkers of Togo" native of this city, which for a while has been multiplying tours of shows around the world to enhance this tradition that it contributes to enrich and transmit. "Afuma" refers in Ifè, the language spoken in the region of Atakpamé, to the name of the aerial fern that grows on bamboo, the raw material used to make stilts. The ancestral art of stilts is nourished by spirituality, it thus takes its source in religion and traditional practices. However the stilt walker must strictly respect certain rules and prohibitions, respect the environment and pay attention to several other principles of life that have not been revealed to us. The use of symbols on the face is reminiscent of specific masks and movements would refer to practices inherited from forest creatures, including fairies. (Source: Cyriaque Kodjo Noussouglo, teacher-researcher in philosophy of art at the University of Lomé)
M'hammed Kilito
Morocco
M'hammed Kilito
Morocco
M'hammed Kilito (b. 1981, Russia) is a documentary photographer based in Rabat, Morocco. He is represented internationally by Loft Art Gallery (Casablanca), Emergeast (Dubaï), and Native Agency (Amsterdam). As a photographer and visual storyteller, he consistently focuses on capturing narratives that are embedded in understanding the relationship between his collaborators and their environments, by covering issues related to cultural identity, the sociology of work, and the human condition.
In 2020, M'hammed was selected by the British Journal of Photography among the 18 best emerging photographers from across the globe to watch, was selected as a 6x6 Global Talent by World Press Photo, became a National Geographic Explorer, received The Photography Prize of the Fondation des Treilles and won Contemporary African Photography Prize.
He is an alumnus of the 2019 edition of the Eddie Adams Workshop in New York where he earned a National Geographic Award. In 2018, M'hammed was part of the Arab Documentary Photography Program, a joint program by Magnum Foundation, AFAC, and Prince Claus Fund during which he worked on his ongoing project Portrait of a generation questioning the realities of Moroccan youth. In 2016, he received a grant from the Ministry of Culture of the Kingdom of Morocco and began photographing the series Destiny about the relationship between work and social determinism which was exhibited at PhotoESPAÑA Festival (Madrid), the French Institute (Rabat), Addis Foto Festival (Addis Ababa), Revela'T Festival (Barcelona) and The Africa Institute (Sharjah).
His work has been shown at festivals and venues including Sharjah Art Foundation (Sharjah), 1:54 Art Fair (Paris), Tate Modern (London), National Museum of Photography (Rabat), Beirut Image Festival (Beirut), Photo Vogue Festival (Milan), Helsinki Photo Festival (Helsinki) and Breda Photo Festival (Breda) among others. His photographs have been featured in magazines and newspapers such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The British Journal of Photography, Vogue Italia, L'Express, VICE Arabia and El Pais.
M'hammed holds a Master of Arts in Political Science from Ottawa University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Montreal.
Among You
This project reflects the choices around personal identity for Moroccan youth. Through a selection of portraits, He documents young people who take their destinies into their own hands. These individuals have the courage to choose their own realities, often pushing the limits of society further. Whether through their creative activities, their appearance, or their sexuality, they convey the image of a young Morocco - alert, changing, claiming the right to be different and celebrating diversity. These young people, whose minds embody the resistance of a palm tree - a tree adapted to the harshest Moroccan climatic conditions - defy the conservative and traditional norms with regard to individual freedoms of Moroccan society on a daily basis. They cultivate their private oasis despite the obstacles they encounter in a country that they feel is not progressing at the same pace as they are, and they are inspiring others along the way.
Among You
This project reflects the choices around personal identity for Moroccan youth. Through a selection of portraits, He documents young people who take their destinies into their own hands. These individuals have the courage to choose their own realities, often pushing the limits of society further. Whether through their creative activities, their appearance, or their sexuality, they convey the image of a young Morocco - alert, changing, claiming the right to be different and celebrating diversity. These young people, whose minds embody the resistance of a palm tree - a tree adapted to the harshest Moroccan climatic conditions - defy the conservative and traditional norms with regard to individual freedoms of Moroccan society on a daily basis. They cultivate their private oasis despite the obstacles they encounter in a country that they feel is not progressing at the same pace as they are, and they are inspiring others along the way.
Zahui Marc Désiré
Côte d'Ivoire
Zahui Marc Désiré
Côte d'Ivoire
ZAHUI Marc Désiré was born on March 6th 1997 in Abidjan (Ivory Coast). This young computer scientist and application developer, is very early passionate about visual arts, plastic arts, graphic design and photography. Already in secondary school, the future photographer enjoyed capturing all the scenes of life he could witness. This habit quickly earned him the pseudonym "Zahui photo". It was only in 2017, during a visit to the exhibition of the Ivorian photographer Ly Lagazelle, that the artist realised that photography is not only the expression of beauty, but also and above all, a means of sharing emotions and conveying more committed messages. From that moment on, this medium became for him a centre of interest in its own right... almost an obsession.
Marc started to train himself thanks to online tutorials, and to take pictures with his iPhone 5... A few months later, he was selected among the candidates of a contest organised by the Rotonde des Arts. This competition marked a decisive turning point in his artistic development. He will then do advanced workshops, notably at the Donwahi Foundation with the internationally renowned photographer Aïda Muluneh who quickly notices his potential.
Known under the pseudonym deezy_pics on social networks, the artist presents a great maturity of photographic expression in his work. In a few shots, he manages to transport the initiated and the amateur into a virtual reality of his own creative universe. Somewhere between photography and graphic design, Marc's "photography" suggests to those who know how to look, monochrome portraits, surreal landscapes and "mutilated" streets. In his photographs, Marc alias deezy_pics knows how to play with contrasts and manipulate colours in order to share the emotions that are stirring in his heart as a neo-contemporary artist.
Lost Identity
Lost Identity is a series of digital photography that addresses the subject of identity with a socio-political issue. The desire to mount this series was born from the realities of the new African generation and more specifically the Ivorian one. Indeed, this photographic series presents first the identity crisis, and cultural reality of the Ivorian youth and second the need to return to the sources and appropriate this identity. The pride and the Pan-African unity as a new identity claim within the youth communities in all communities throughout Africa is today a major issue in the evolution of the mentality, the evolution of mentality, culture, and valorization of Africanism. Identity is perceived as the intrinsic and extrinsic traits that allow for recognition of the social, religious, ethnic, cultural, and/or political belonging of a person or a group of people. This identity is therefore a particular mark that shows the uniqueness of a person or a group of a person or a group of persons; which, lost entails a loss of value of sociability, brake to the evolution of any civilization. Thus, the quest for oneself necessarily involves a search for identity elsewhere. This is translated by an African proverb: "It is better to know where one comes from in order to know
where one is going". In simpler terms, it is one must know one's origins, one's history, one's culture, in order to trace one's path, define one's route, in order to better understand oneself, one's environment, and one's to better understand oneself, one's environment and one's destiny. Nowadays, with the return to the sources, and the rise of Africanism and Afrocentrism, one could notice that the artistic environment is the most important place for the that the artistic environment is the most impacted and most impacting because it is by a channel of expression that the reality that represents the questioning of identity among Africans has been highlighted. Also, it is by this same channel that the first signs of the desire for cultural recognition were born. All these contacts, these efforts implemented by the pioneers of the revalorization of Africa have been and still are a guide to reconcile the youth with its cultural references when the system seems to be pushing them away. In Côte d'Ivoire, for example, how many young people speak their dialect? How many know the land of their ancestors? How many know the cultural and cultural customs of their country? Many seem to be lost and caught up in the spiral of modernization and westernization. It is time for us young people, Ivorians, and Africans from all over the world to assert our identity!
Lost Identity
Lost Identity is a series of digital photography that addresses the subject of identity with a socio-political issue. The desire to mount this series was born from the realities of the new African generation and more specifically the Ivorian one. Indeed, this photographic series presents first the identity crisis, and cultural reality of the Ivorian youth and second the need to return to the sources and appropriate this identity. The pride and the Pan-African unity as a new identity claim within the youth communities in all communities throughout Africa is today a major issue in the evolution of the mentality, the evolution of mentality, culture, and valorization of Africanism. Identity is perceived as the intrinsic and extrinsic traits that allow for recognition of the social, religious, ethnic, cultural, and/or political belonging of a person or a group of people. This identity is therefore a particular mark that shows the uniqueness of a person or a group of a person or a group of persons; which, lost entails a loss of value of sociability, brake to the evolution of any civilization. Thus, the quest for oneself necessarily involves a search for identity elsewhere. This is translated by an African proverb: "It is better to know where one comes from in order to know
where one is going". In simpler terms, it is one must know one's origins, one's history, one's culture, in order to trace one's path, define one's route, in order to better understand oneself, one's environment, and one's to better understand oneself, one's environment and one's destiny. Nowadays, with the return to the sources, and the rise of Africanism and Afrocentrism, one could notice that the artistic environment is the most important place for the that the artistic environment is the most impacted and most impacting because it is by a channel of expression that the reality that represents the questioning of identity among Africans has been highlighted. Also, it is by this same channel that the first signs of the desire for cultural recognition were born. All these contacts, these efforts implemented by the pioneers of the revalorization of Africa have been and still are a guide to reconcile the youth with its cultural references when the system seems to be pushing them away. In Côte d'Ivoire, for example, how many young people speak their dialect? How many know the land of their ancestors? How many know the cultural and cultural customs of their country? Many seem to be lost and caught up in the spiral of modernization and westernization. It is time for us young people, Ivorians, and Africans from all over the world to assert our identity!
Mehdy Mariouch
Morocco
Mehdy Mariouch
Morocco
Mehdy Mariouch was born on March 15, 1986, in Casablanca, Morocco, where he continues to live and work today. A graduate from Fine Arts School in Casablanca, Mariouch first studied visual arts, and then graphic design, before switching to photography. His practice explores the border between documentary photography and art.
Mariouch was selected as a grantee for the Arab Documentary Photography Program (2016-2017), he worked on a story about the closed mineral mines in Eastern Morocco and the communities still living a working there, with mentors Randa Shaath, Eric Gottesman, Tanya Habjouqa, and Peter van Agtmael.
Studios
We all remember those photographers who were barely smiling, the ones our parents took us to in order to mark moments of a celebration, of an event, or simply to take a shot for administrative papers...In those studios, usually tiny, the imagination of the photographer carried us to the settings of our desire. Many sunsets, flower gardens, arcades, landscapes and seas were reinvented and reproduced … We could switch between universes, surpass the reality barriers through a simple change of backgrounds.
The medium is always the same. Photography transcends geography, and reinvents it.
Tangier, Tetouan, Missour, Bejaâd or Casablanca … many cities crossed through their small photography studios. One enters these spaces on tiptoes, in order to capture images from the past, and ones that are still present through outdated decors, decayed colours, an outside witness and a temptation of getaway.
Those fantasy worlds become a reality through the eye of the photographer. It is a world where anything becomes possible through a click. There are many material borders which are dematerialized through a simple look. Through their clichés, the studio photographers that he met seem to stop time.
They protect their studios the way foxes defend their hilltops.
They preserve their classic methods and framework, and keep them frozen, almost immutable. Either because they want it this way, or because they do not have the means.
These photography studios, where memory is preserved and protected, are abundant cocoons of interior lives that are unfortunately forgotten by many.
Mariouch aims to engage each photographer in his studio, where he captured photos of millions of people. A setting that is out of scope, out of time, adopting an untidy style in appearance that is almost kitsch, with flashes, frames, archives and packed boxes.
In the midst of all this, the photographer is the one who is photographed.
Paying a tribute to those people is paying a tribute to photography.
Studios
We all remember those photographers who were barely smiling, the ones our parents took us to in order to mark moments of a celebration, of an event, or simply to take a shot for administrative papers...In those studios, usually tiny, the imagination of the photographer carried us to the settings of our desire. Many sunsets, flower gardens, arcades, landscapes and seas were reinvented and reproduced … We could switch between universes, surpass the reality barriers through a simple change of backgrounds.
The medium is always the same. Photography transcends geography, and reinvents it.
Tangier, Tetouan, Missour, Bejaâd or Casablanca … many cities crossed through their small photography studios. One enters these spaces on tiptoes, in order to capture images from the past, and ones that are still present through outdated decors, decayed colours, an outside witness and a temptation of getaway.
Those fantasy worlds become a reality through the eye of the photographer. It is a world where anything becomes possible through a click. There are many material borders which are dematerialized through a simple look. Through their clichés, the studio photographers that he met seem to stop time.
They protect their studios the way foxes defend their hilltops.
They preserve their classic methods and framework, and keep them frozen, almost immutable. Either because they want it this way, or because they do not have the means.
These photography studios, where memory is preserved and protected, are abundant cocoons of interior lives that are unfortunately forgotten by many.
Mariouch aims to engage each photographer in his studio, where he captured photos of millions of people. A setting that is out of scope, out of time, adopting an untidy style in appearance that is almost kitsch, with flashes, frames, archives and packed boxes.
In the midst of all this, the photographer is the one who is photographed.
Paying a tribute to those people is paying a tribute to photography. 
Mekbib Tadesse
Ethiopia
Mekbib Tadesse
Ethiopia
Mekbib Tadesse is a prolific Ethiopian photographer specializing in the conceptual genre. His works are imbued with mystery and contemplation, a salient impulse transporting viewers to multiple points of view. He earned a degree in Management Studies, which contributes to his fascination with interpersonal interactions, institutional relationships, and the effects of technology on the contemporary social fabric. In his portraiture practice, Tadesse skillfully sculpts the power of photography as a narrative medium to highlight fragments of a deeply embedded reality in his subjects.
After a year of mentoring with Ethiopian photographer Aida Muluneh, Mekbib Tadesse began to work with the artist,
Mekbib Tadesse is inspired by the aesthetics of photo studios, a style that is the essence of contemporary African photography, from Malick Sidibé to Leila Alaoui. Tadesse demonstrates versatility through the photographic medium, navigating between genres as an act of reinvention and reiteration.
The Horsemen
In the 1930’s the people of Awi (Sebat Bet Agew) joined patriots who waged guerrilla warfare against fascist Italian invaders with other Ethiopians. Agew patriots have a rich tradition of horse riding skills to fight and transport logistics for war.
Awi Zone is one of the autonomous zones in Amhara state found to the South and South West of the State capital, Bahir Dar.
The name Sebat Bet Agew (seven families of Agew) was coined from the names of seven brothers; Ankesha, Banja, Kuakura, Chara, Metekel, Zigem and Azena.
After the total defeat and departure of Italy from Ethiopia, Sebat Bet Agew Equestrian Association (Yesebat Bet Agew /Seven Houses of Agew/Horsemen Association) was established to commemorate the role of horses and St. George in calming victory at the battle of Adwa.
Every year, the anniversary of the association takes place on the 23rd Tir (January 30) which is the date dedicated to St. George.
The Horsemen
In the 1930’s the people of Awi (Sebat Bet Agew) joined patriots who waged guerrilla warfare against fascist Italian invaders with other Ethiopians. Agew patriots have a rich tradition of horse riding skills to fight and transport logistics for war.
Awi Zone is one of the autonomous zones in Amhara state found to the South and South West of the State capital, Bahir Dar.
The name Sebat Bet Agew (seven families of Agew) was coined from the names of seven brothers; Ankesha, Banja, Kuakura, Chara, Metekel, Zigem and Azena.
After the total defeat and departure of Italy from Ethiopia, Sebat Bet Agew Equestrian Association (Yesebat Bet Agew /Seven Houses of Agew/Horsemen Association) was established to commemorate the role of horses and St. George in calming victory at the battle of Adwa.
Every year, the anniversary of the association takes place on the 23rd Tir (January 30) which is the date dedicated to St. George. 
Meseret Argaw
Ethiopia
Meseret Argaw
Ethiopia
Meseret Argaw is an Ethiopian photographer, born in 1989 in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). She has a degree in textile engineering. Upon the completion of her degree she joined the Master Fine Art and Vocational Training Center in Addis Ababa to study photography, videography, film-making and editing.
Argaw has taken part in various workshops including Canon Student Development Programme (2021), Addis Foto Fest international workshop (2020), UNESCO journalism workshop (2015), Goethe Institute portfolio review (2016) and CPE workshop 1 (2017) and 4 (2017- 2018). Moreover, she has taken part in group exhibitions, including In Quest for at the Goethe institute (2015) and UPPA (2017), Addis Foto Fest (2016), Against Gravity at the RAY festival (2018), and Visions From The World, Photo Vogue (2021).
Meseret Argaw’s works explore identity, history, and dreams. Her work incorporates everyday cultural materials to tell a story. She is currently enrolled in a one-year photojournalism and documentary photography programme at The Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg (South Africa), under scholarship sponsored by the Daniele Tamagni Grant.
ERKE
Until I embarked on this journey I didn’t know how much I was affected by it. How deep I have swam under it and surrendered without a fight. I voluntarily let the memory consume me through the years. But I finally found the courage to face it; with the intention, I might close the door it left open for the unknown. I was abducted twice when I was four years old. Each time I was found by people who either knew me or my family. I understood the endless possibilities if the unknown had become my reality. But I also needed to face my current self and figure out how it relates to the women I wanted to portray.
I began with the thought that I was fighting my own battle. But I came to realize that through my story I was also telling the story of women who walk the road I could have walked.
*Participant of AFF virtual workshop
ERKE
Until I embarked on this journey I didn’t know how much I was affected by it. How deep I have swam under it and surrendered without a fight. I voluntarily let the memory consume me through the years. But I finally found the courage to face it; with the intention, I might close the door it left open for the unknown. I was abducted twice when I was four years old. Each time I was found by people who either knew me or my family. I understood the endless possibilities if the unknown had become my reality. But I also needed to face my current self and figure out how it relates to the women I wanted to portray.
I began with the thought that I was fighting my own battle. But I came to realize that through my story I was also telling the story of women who walk the road I could have walked.
*Participant of AFF virtual workshop
Mohamed Altoum
Sudan
Mohamed Altoum
Sudan
Mohamed Altoum is a Sudanese visual artist, photographer, and filmmaker. He studied documentary photography and photojournalism in the international class at the Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Germany, andis work has been shown in numerous exhibitions and festivals in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.
His work has been featured in major publications and media outlets including Al Jazeera, New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, Vice and World Press Photo. In 2017, Altoum was selected for the Artists in Residency Programme by Africa Center in Cape Town, South Africa. The same year, he participated in the 'Arab Documentary Photography Program' supported by the Magnum Foundation, the Prince Claus Fund and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) in Beirut, Lebanon. His photo story about abandoned cinema theaters in Khartoum was shortlisted for the prize of Contemporary African Photography (CAP) in Basel, Switzerland the same year. In 2019, his photographs were presented in the seventh edition of Sharjah Art Foundation’s annual photography exhibition.
He seeks to document his personal experiences and send, with this personal vision, a message worth sharing. Through his work is always attempts to reveal his perception of the world through visual content and narrative.
Hoshmmar
After my father passed away in 2010, I was looking through his old family photographs and handwritten letters when I came across drawings of his, and also poems and calligraphy.
Everything was about the Nubian people and culture, indigenous to present-day Sudan, and believed to be one of the cradles of civilization.
My father was always reminding us of our Nubian identity. He was from the town of Hoshmar but I grew up in the capital city of Khartoum, far from a Nubian community, so my relationship with the Nubian culture was mostly through his memories.
After his death, I felt the need to get closer to my roots and understand better what he had tried to pass down. I wanted his legacy live on, so I started a journey which took me through
Sudan to Aswan in Egypt and then to Kenya. As I searched out the Nubian culture through my father’s memories, I was also searching for my father, coming to understand all he was.
Hoshmmar
After my father passed away in 2010, I was looking through his old family photographs and handwritten letters when I came across drawings of his, and also poems and calligraphy.
Everything was about the Nubian people and culture, indigenous to present-day Sudan, and believed to be one of the cradles of civilization.
My father was always reminding us of our Nubian identity. He was from the town of Hoshmar but I grew up in the capital city of Khartoum, far from a Nubian community, so my relationship with the Nubian culture was mostly through his memories.
After his death, I felt the need to get closer to my roots and understand better what he had tried to pass down. I wanted his legacy live on, so I started a journey which took me through
Sudan to Aswan in Egypt and then to Kenya. As I searched out the Nubian culture through my father’s memories, I was also searching for my father, coming to understand all he was.
Mohamed Aly Diabaté
Côte d'Ivoire
Mohamed Aly Diabaté
Côte d'Ivoire
Mohamed Aly Diabaté, filmmaker and documentary photographer. Passionate about cinema and photography, I hold a master's degree in communication and audiovisual production from the Institute of Sciences and Techniques of Communication Polytechnic in Abidjan. When I started my professional career, I have worked on humanitarian projects that aim to tell the story of people who give an impulse to social, educational and cultural change in West Africa.
In 2018, I made a documentary film and a series of photographs on the dangers of child labor in Côte d'Ivoire, and I was nominated at the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO, 2019). The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly affected our way of apprehending the world. As a media professional, I have not remained indifferent to this pandemic. I have placed my expertise at the service of the community through video spots and dozens of photojournalistic stories making. These projects aimed at sensitising and warning the population about the dangers of the virus in preventing the virus from spreading. Through my experience, I would like to promote sustainable development goals for a bright future. The themes I address such as clandestine migration, poverty, inequality, famine, child labor, violence against women and education for all, to name a few, are the global challenges we face today. In the years to come, I would like to create an audiovisual training school, intended exclusively for underprivileged young people. In order to teach them this noble activity, so that they can express themselves through the power of photography and photos.
MOUSSOFARI Entails Brave Woman In Malinke
MoussoFari means brave women in Bambara language. This is a documentary photography which highlights garbage collectors women activities in Abidjan city. With the lens of my camera, I met these brave women to capture special moments of their daily routines. The looks I take, unveil the beauty of their gestures similar to choreography. Day and night, camouflaged in green uniforms, they walk on the streets of Abidjan with their brooms. My eyes have been nourished.
MOUSSOFARI Entails Brave Woman In Malinke
MoussoFari means brave women in Bambara language. This is a documentary photography which highlights garbage collectors women activities in Abidjan city. With the lens of my camera, I met these brave women to capture special moments of their daily routines. The looks I take, unveil the beauty of their gestures similar to choreography. Day and night, camouflaged in green uniforms, they walk on the streets of Abidjan with their brooms. My eyes have been nourished.
Mouna Jemal Siala
Tunisia
Mouna Jemal Siala
Tunisia
Born in 1973 in Paris, lives and works in Tunis.
A protean visual artist, Mouna holds a doctorate in Arts and Art Sciences from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. Since 1993, she has participated in several exhibitions in France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Algiers, Bamako, Dakar (Prix du ministre de la Culture du SénégalDak'Art 2010), Geneva, Casablanca, Kolkata, Los Angeles, New York and Tunisia. "Ulysses de la Hafsia" was presented at the 1st Biennial of Contemporary Art in Rabat, Morocco and is currently on display at the Centre Frac Val de Loire in France. Over the last two years, with the pandemic, Mouna has been interested in history to better understand current events. Her art articulates the digital, the virtual and the real. She transforms tesserae into pixels. Preoccupied by the concern to keep the memory of an action, an event, an experience, she criss-crosses her personal history, linking her life and her art in an inseparable way. Her triplets, her female body and the events and history of her country are all part of her work. Her observational gaze moves from the intimate and the particular to the general and the objective.
Bus Stations In The Era Of The 21st Century
I chose to call this series of five photos taken among many others, on my daily route here in Tunisia these last years: "Bus stations in the era of the 21st century", because, quite simply, it is inconceivable and inadmissible that the bus stations are in this state in the era of today. This is a fact! My country, Tunisia, has been burning up for ten years. As a citizen artist, I am worried about the changes and disruptions that could destabilize my country. The state of disrepair of the economic, social and political system in post-January 2011 Tunisia is unfortunately perceptible in all sectors and regions. Public transport, whose infrastructure was relatively well thought out, has become a real ordeal and the bus stations that are falling into ruin at a glance due to lack of maintenance, have particularly caught my attention. It may be a detail, but it reflects an outdated, absent state. This is why, in response to the disorder that is settling in the human, urban, political landscape... I express myself through art, through the photographic image, to draw attention to problems, social, political... Art will not solve the problem immediately, but it is a witness of its time much more than the media news, and will be the cultural trace par excellence. That's why I wanted to freeze them in black and white, because for me they are, quite simply, timeless.
Bus Stations In The Era Of The 21st Century
I chose to call this series of five photos taken among many others, on my daily route here in Tunisia these last years: "Bus stations in the era of the 21st century", because, quite simply, it is inconceivable and inadmissible that the bus stations are in this state in the era of today. This is a fact! My country, Tunisia, has been burning up for ten years. As a citizen artist, I am worried about the changes and disruptions that could destabilize my country. The state of disrepair of the economic, social and political system in post-January 2011 Tunisia is unfortunately perceptible in all sectors and regions. Public transport, whose infrastructure was relatively well thought out, has become a real ordeal and the bus stations that are falling into ruin at a glance due to lack of maintenance, have particularly caught my attention. It may be a detail, but it reflects an outdated, absent state. This is why, in response to the disorder that is settling in the human, urban, political landscape... I express myself through art, through the photographic image, to draw attention to problems, social, political... Art will not solve the problem immediately, but it is a witness of its time much more than the media news, and will be the cultural trace par excellence. That's why I wanted to freeze them in black and white, because for me they are, quite simply, timeless.
Moustafa Cheaiteli
Côte d'Ivoire
Moustafa Cheaiteli
Côte d'Ivoire
Moustafa Cheaiteli is a photographer who was born in the small town of Sobre in Ivory Coast. With extensive travel and a broad education in different cultures, photography became his mode of expression, combining all of the above he is inspired by the African continent where he lives and has a passion to share what he sees locally with the world.
Babi Rail
The level of development remains one of the most studied aspects in emerging countries. Côte d'Ivoire, one of the pioneers of development in Africa, is experiencing major growth, but for generations, this phenomenon has very often led to upheaval in areas that could potentially be used for housing.
The railway that already runs through the city of Abidjan is being transformed into a modern metro. My curiosity and my desire to better understand the lives of the people living in commercial zone 3, led inevitably to the implementation of this project. I explored the area from 2014 to 2020 and was adopted by its inhabitants to document its history, I realized the importance of raising collective awareness about the lives of people who do not fit into the new vision of the future at all.
Babi Rail
The level of development remains one of the most studied aspects in emerging countries. Côte d'Ivoire, one of the pioneers of development in Africa, is experiencing major growth, but for generations, this phenomenon has very often led to upheaval in areas that could potentially be used for housing.
The railway that already runs through the city of Abidjan is being transformed into a modern metro. My curiosity and my desire to better understand the lives of the people living in commercial zone 3, led inevitably to the implementation of this project. I explored the area from 2014 to 2020 and was adopted by its inhabitants to document its history, I realized the importance of raising collective awareness about the lives of people who do not fit into the new vision of the future at all. 
Muhammad Jamal
Ethiopia
Muhammad Jamal
Ethiopia
Muhammad Jamal is a storyteller, photographer, and visual artist based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
His lens based images disrupt the long-standing monolithic understanding of spirituality in Ethiopia- and softly reveal the urgency to expand our narratives beyond the borders of dominant frameworks of knowledge and understanding.
Muhammad leans on the practice of spirituality, it’s language and its way of being- as a safe haven to uplift under and mis- represented communities in his context.
his images are a meticulous construction of identity - as a mark making process tracing the Sufi muslim lineage in Ethiopia.
His works imbue courage weaving stories of historical, cultural, and familial origin to collectively assert we exist and we matter.
Today, it's easy to discern the standardization of our physical world where the leading brands of 'luxury' have framed the dream house, the beauty mark, the best body shape, and of the best of everything, even of the best 'experiences' to experience in a lifetime.
Nothing short of enticing 'experiences' are marketed through the stories of Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok where each of us - users - validate our tapping into the riches of the 'best-life' through presented content - exhibits.
For whom are we trying to prove? What are we trying to prove - the fact that our life is the 'best'? Do we even have to prove? Time seems to get us to a place where we - subconsciously - seek the approval of many, even of those with little interaction in our 'real' life. Destitute of contentment, we - those of this generation - seem to crawl the world with much more unhappiness than our grandparents. Why?
One hopes to see deep into itself - to the true self - that if One hopes to see deep into itself - to the true self - that flourishes upon the comfort of its little corner. Looking deep into our rooted history, culture, and diversified backgrounds, we need to decentralize the notion of the 'best life'.
Isn't a life lived to the best of its potential, after all, the best-life? Beauty is indeed in the eyes of the beholder - can't we bring our warm eyes to discern the beauty of our own lives - incomparable to the lives of others? Spirituality is to seek deep meaning within our trajectory of life.
Mulugeta Ayene
Ethiopia
Mulugeta Ayene
Ethiopia
Mulugeta Ayene is an Ethiopian photojournalist and fine art photographer living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. While his work covers a wide range of subjects, recurrent themes in Mulugeta Ayene’s work are social transformations and their effects on identity and social relations.
Mulugeta is a photographer for the Associated Press and works on regular assignments for prominent international organizations such as UNICEF, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to mention a few.
His 2018 photography series Ethiopian Spring was exhibited at the 2019-2020 Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition in Oslo, Norway. Ayene was awarded the first prize in the Spot News stories category of the 2020 World Press Photo Contest and was one of the nominees for World Press Photo of the Year and Story of the Year in 2020. His photos have also won him first prize in the Excellence in Journalism competition organised by the Foreign Correspondents Association of Ethiopia (FCAE) in 2011 and 2012, and the first prize in the India-Africa Photo Contest in 2012. And he is an Award-winning photographer 2020 Photo Contest.
Flight ET302
A relative of a victim of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 plane crash throws dirt in her face as she grieves at the crash site, near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. On 10 March, Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302, a Boeing 737 MAX, disappeared from the radar six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa airport and crashed into a field, killing all 157 people on board. The impact was so great that both engines were buried in a crater 10 meters deep. A week after the crash, empty coffins were buried at a ceremony at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, as victims were unable to be identified. Officials gave relatives bags of earth from the crash site. On 14 November, eight months after the crash, the site of the impact was covered and the unidentified remains of victims buried in rows of identical coffins. Comparisons were made with the crash of a Lion Air aircraft, also a 737 MAX, 12 minutes after take-off from Jakarta in October 2018. Countries across the world, initially with the exception of the US, grounded the 737 MAX. First reports showed that pilots had been unable to prevent the plane repeatedly nosediving, despite following procedures recommended by Boeing. It appeared that in both cases pilots were struggling to deal with an automated safety system designed to prevent stalling, which was repeatedly pushing the nose of the plane down. It seemed that the system was being activated, possibly due to a faulty sensor, even though nothing was wrong. It later emerged that American Airlines pilots had confronted Boeing about potential safety issues with the MAX. Boeing had resisted their calls but promised a software fix, which had not been done by the time Flight ET302 crashed. Planes remained grounded into 2020.
Flight ET302
A relative of a victim of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 plane crash throws dirt in her face as she grieves at the crash site, near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. On 10 March, Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302, a Boeing 737 MAX, disappeared from the radar six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa airport and crashed into a field, killing all 157 people on board. The impact was so great that both engines were buried in a crater 10 meters deep. A week after the crash, empty coffins were buried at a ceremony at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, as victims were unable to be identified. Officials gave relatives bags of earth from the crash site. On 14 November, eight months after the crash, the site of the impact was covered and the unidentified remains of victims buried in rows of identical coffins. Comparisons were made with the crash of a Lion Air aircraft, also a 737 MAX, 12 minutes after take-off from Jakarta in October 2018. Countries across the world, initially with the exception of the US, grounded the 737 MAX. First reports showed that pilots had been unable to prevent the plane repeatedly nosediving, despite following procedures recommended by Boeing. It appeared that in both cases pilots were struggling to deal with an automated safety system designed to prevent stalling, which was repeatedly pushing the nose of the plane down. It seemed that the system was being activated, possibly due to a faulty sensor, even though nothing was wrong. It later emerged that American Airlines pilots had confronted Boeing about potential safety issues with the MAX. Boeing had resisted their calls but promised a software fix, which had not been done by the time Flight ET302 crashed. Planes remained grounded into 2020.
Mustafa Saeed
Somalia
Mustafa Saeed
Somalia
Mustafa Saeed is a Somali artist based in Hargeisa, Somaliland. His work combines different mediums including photography, graphics and sound to explore socio-political issues including war, conflict and environment. He is a contributor to Everyday Africa and the founder of Fankeenna, a youth-led art platform that houses a studio, gallery and workspace for local artists.
In 2015 he was chosen for the Arab Documentary Program ADPP, and his work has been exhibited at Addis Foto Fest (Addis Ababa), Lumières d’Afriques (Paris), and UNSEEN Photo Fair (Amsterdam). His work has also been widely published on news and media platforms including the BBC.
Cohesive Randomness
Can anything get us away from reality, make us create our own bubble? when things get so hard to change, and you see yourself indulged in choices, ways to change the root you’re taking but it gets harder, and based on your level of breaking hardships you might see yourself taking shortcuts, that might be against your progression. Does a piece of fabric represent our belongings? When a soul can’t see itself being independent, but having the need to be part of or dependent on a bigger chain of relationships to exist, without it might feel to cease. Just create to impress? Follow till we fall? Obey till we lose ourselves? Do we have a choice if the universe is predetermined? If I’m free, why am I explaining my doings? Can’t I be the tool of feelings and expressions, putting it to tangibility.
Cohesive Randomness
Can anything get us away from reality, make us create our own bubble? when things get so hard to change, and you see yourself indulged in choices, ways to change the root you’re taking but it gets harder, and based on your level of breaking hardships you might see yourself taking shortcuts, that might be against your progression. Does a piece of fabric represent our belongings? When a soul can’t see itself being independent, but having the need to be part of or dependent on a bigger chain of relationships to exist, without it might feel to cease. Just create to impress? Follow till we fall? Obey till we lose ourselves? Do we have a choice if the universe is predetermined? If I’m free, why am I explaining my doings? Can’t I be the tool of feelings and expressions, putting it to tangibility.
Nabil Boutros
Egypt
Nabil Boutros
Egypt
Nabil Boutros (b. Cairo) is an Egyptian photographer who lives and works between Paris and Cairo. While his current photographic work is largely situated in Egypt, it also extends more broadly to the Middle East and Africa. Between 1990 and 1994 he began a series of Egyptian portraits that brought together certain themes that would remain a constant in his coming works, these themes include inhabited places and the night. Copts of the Nile (Egyptian Christians) is a study of the rituals and daily life of those who follow the Egyptian Coptic Christian faith, Copts of the Nile was presented at the Bamako Biennale in 2003 and published in 2007.
Several of his works were exhibited in various museums and galleries across France and abroad. At the request of the French Institute, in 2005 he directed photographic compositions on four African writers and their writings, the exhibition Latent Portraits, was exhibited mainly across Africa. In 2007, he conducted research on the relationship between Bedouins and Modernity in Jordan. He started a body of work on the Secular and the Sacred at Reunion Island in 2007, and in 2010 he finished a body of work entitled the Hammams of San’aa – Yemen.
Since 2006, his experience of set designing mixed with a critical look at matters led him towards visual installations. In the series: Egyptians or the clothes make the man (2011), he masquerades as several types of Egyptians. Invitation to Happiness (2011) and Reality is Soluble in Images (2015), take the form of true-false advertising posters. Spring Trip (2013), Beyond (2013), and Promises Gate (2014), engages with the relationship between the image and sacred text. Ovine Condition (2014), Kalila & Demna (2015), About Authority (2015), are ironic works about authoritarian trickery. A Dream (2016), more poetically, evokes individual constraints.
Ovine Condition
Ovine Condition situates itself as an ironic metaphor about forgetful gregariousness. It asks: “What takes place when one prefers conforming to the reassuring dominant discourse? To deny the truth that we see? To even ignore history?”
This body of work is divided into three parallel series of different sizes and numbers:
Celebrities are studio portraits of sheep, lambs and rams; each one exalting individuality. Presumed Innocence is shown through a photographic representation of sheep at pasture. The mask over their eyes protects their image rights; they are still presumed, innocent individuals. Field of Honour is the place where the sacrifice is done by mass; docility to their master makes them guilty.
The series in its entirety is presented as an endless belt, diverse but repetitive, developing the three series in parallel. The sheep of Rabelais, notorious for their gregariousness, have been the topic of much ridicule. The herd instinct inspired many in-depth studies on crowds during the late nineteenth century by social psychologists G. Le Bon’s in Group Psychology, W. Trotter, as well as Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. Willem Reich was also interested in the herd phenomenon that destroys critical thinking in favour of joining the masses, as a way of trying to understand the widespread adoption of the Nazi ideology, thereby complementing Freud’s work. History and current events continue to demonstrate how crowds have an irrational behaviour in that they destroy the individual capacity, even if their mass seems to be influencing the course of events in global geopolitics. This is why authorities seek to render individuals into a herd mentality through various means: charm, persuasion, sham and violence!
Is this oversight the cause of recurring history? Is it the need to be at the centre of the common, which allows one to forget? Unless the Masters have cultivated an intentional ignorance of the past and present.
Ovine Condition
Ovine Condition situates itself as an ironic metaphor about forgetful gregariousness. It asks: “What takes place when one prefers conforming to the reassuring dominant discourse? To deny the truth that we see? To even ignore history?”
This body of work is divided into three parallel series of different sizes and numbers:
Celebrities are studio portraits of sheep, lambs and rams; each one exalting individuality. Presumed Innocence is shown through a photographic representation of sheep at pasture. The mask over their eyes protects their image rights; they are still presumed, innocent individuals. Field of Honour is the place where the sacrifice is done by mass; docility to their master makes them guilty.
The series in its entirety is presented as an endless belt, diverse but repetitive, developing the three series in parallel. The sheep of Rabelais, notorious for their gregariousness, have been the topic of much ridicule. The herd instinct inspired many in-depth studies on crowds during the late nineteenth century by social psychologists G. Le Bon’s in Group Psychology, W. Trotter, as well as Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. Willem Reich was also interested in the herd phenomenon that destroys critical thinking in favour of joining the masses, as a way of trying to understand the widespread adoption of the Nazi ideology, thereby complementing Freud’s work. History and current events continue to demonstrate how crowds have an irrational behaviour in that they destroy the individual capacity, even if their mass seems to be influencing the course of events in global geopolitics. This is why authorities seek to render individuals into a herd mentality through various means: charm, persuasion, sham and violence!
Is this oversight the cause of recurring history? Is it the need to be at the centre of the common, which allows one to forget? Unless the Masters have cultivated an intentional ignorance of the past and present. 
Nadi Jessica
Côte d'Ivoire
Nadi Jessica
Côte d'Ivoire
Nadi Jessica is an Ivorian photographer passionate about travel and culture. Holder of a diploma in Visual Communication Web Programming option, it is after her BTS that she meets photography in 2017 and decided to dedicate herself to this art.
In 2019, she became Catchlight fellow under the mentorship of the Ethiopian photographer Aida Muluneh with whom she learned a lot.
Jessica, has joined also other exhibitions teams such as the project: The Parliament of African Women, with FAAP, at the International Festival Cinema Invisible "Filma Sozialak" in Bilbao, (Spain) in 2020.
Jessica's photos usually tell a story, the story of her subjects' daily lives and the human condition.
L'EMPRISE
L'EMPRISE, is the name of the artistic series that the photographer started in 2020. For a long time, she couldn’t understand why women undergoing gender-based violence, often return to their abusers or feel unable to leave them. By the way, one question come to her mind: Why don't they leave them? She was able to understand later, when she took lessons in Psychology as she says: "Women don't leave them, because they have been trapped into a controlling relationship. Control is a psychological pattern by means of which a person dominates over another. The goal is to oblige the other person to meet their expectations regardless of her well-being. Thus, it is a state under which the husband puts his wife with an ascendancy over her, a state of domination and manipulation. The woman under control is both in a position of submission and in a higher emotional dependence." With her art, she tries to interpret the trap women undergoing physical, verbal and psychological violence fall into. Hence, the artist highlights gender-based violence.
L'EMPRISE
L'EMPRISE, is the name of the artistic series that the photographer started in 2020. For a long time, she couldn’t understand why women undergoing gender-based violence, often return to their abusers or feel unable to leave them. By the way, one question come to her mind: Why don't they leave them? She was able to understand later, when she took lessons in Psychology as she says: "Women don't leave them, because they have been trapped into a controlling relationship. Control is a psychological pattern by means of which a person dominates over another. The goal is to oblige the other person to meet their expectations regardless of her well-being. Thus, it is a state under which the husband puts his wife with an ascendancy over her, a state of domination and manipulation. The woman under control is both in a position of submission and in a higher emotional dependence." With her art, she tries to interpret the trap women undergoing physical, verbal and psychological violence fall into. Hence, the artist highlights gender-based violence.
Nadja Makhlouf
Algeria
Nadja Makhlouf
Algeria
Nadja Makhlouf is a French-Algerian photographer and video maker (film director). Her work questions diverse aspects of the historical memory, History, social issues and notably the status of women in Algeria.
After she graduated from a Baccalaureate in Literature, she studied Documentary making in Aix-Marseille University. She then went on experimenting through different projects in cinema and photography. More than 5 years working for other people in different positions, she embraces all the responsibilities to give birth to an audiovisual trilogy and a photographic exhibition. For four years, she works on a three-part project on the status of women in Algeria, each consisting of a photographic exhibition and a documentary film. The first part presents “Fatal women”, photographic portraits of the Kabyle women in today's Algeria, “Allah Ghaleb”, the film that accompanies it, reports in privacy day to day life of theses womens. The film won the Audience Award at the festival: "Look at the World Cinema" in Rouen, France, 2012.
The second part "El Moudjahidate: Invisible to Visible, women fighters", focuses on Female fighters for the war of independence in Algeria, from yesterday to today. What remains from their fight today? She made a documentary called “The Moudjahida, the fighter’s womens”.
The third part, is about touareg women’s in the desert in Algeria. She focuses of the power of these womens through the matriarchal society.
For now, she works on an ongoing project called « I’m a feminist women and I am Muslim ». This project deals with how women’s lives in France, being both Muslim and feminist.
Nadja uses photography to express the invisible world of women. She wants to break the stereotype of the « Arabic » women’s or what we called, the « oriental » women’s . She gave them back their freedom, their dignity and the possibility to express their own world. She focuses her work to spread their words. As a women documentarist, she spent a lot of time with them to try to understand more and more what each of them lives. She always involves each character in his project, to be closer and closer. This aims to create more honesty and beauty on his work.
El Moudjahidate : Invisible to Visible, Fighters Women
The photographic series « El Moudjahidate : Invisible to Visible, Fighters womens », traces the history of women who fought in the Algerian war of independence. During the war between Algeria against France (1954-1962), there is a part of the history that we don't talk. The main participation of the women to liberate the country from the colonization. Most of the women in Algeria fight against France occupation.
There were soldiers, nursery, secretary, doctors, transporting bombs, guns, unofficial letters, psychiatrist, doctor for the Algerian soldier (Those we used to call "fellagha"), making flat for all the Algerian people, preparing manifestation, making money in Algeria and France to feed the independence, actresses for the FLN around the world.
These invisible women, who played the same role as men and who, however, remained in the shadows, are of different religious denominations (Jewish, Christian, Muslim or atheist) and played a decisive role in the liberation of the country. They were all together to fight against the colonization. By doing the same things as men, they manage to give credibility and power to all women in the country, who until now had none. They are the ones who opened the breach to allow the Algerian women of today, to have more rights and freedom. These women fight doubly: Free themselves from patriarchy (father, brother and / or uncle) by fighting the colonizer.
All of this women were tortured, in jail and lost a close parent.
I wanted to Confront the past to the present. More than 50 years separated the old photo (on the left) from the recent one (on the right). This diptych photography sheds a light on History as well as a reflexion on the present: What have our fights become? How those rebellious women once pioneer could disappear from their country’s memory? What must we conclude on the condition of women in Algeria today?
Between bitterness and hope, this photo installation makes us think about History, The War of Independence in Algeria, a story told for the first time by women.
El Moudjahidate : Invisible to Visible, Fighters Women
The photographic series « El Moudjahidate : Invisible to Visible, Fighters womens », traces the history of women who fought in the Algerian war of independence. During the war between Algeria against France (1954-1962), there is a part of the history that we don't talk. The main participation of the women to liberate the country from the colonization. Most of the women in Algeria fight against France occupation.
There were soldiers, nursery, secretary, doctors, transporting bombs, guns, unofficial letters, psychiatrist, doctor for the Algerian soldier (Those we used to call "fellagha"), making flat for all the Algerian people, preparing manifestation, making money in Algeria and France to feed the independence, actresses for the FLN around the world.
These invisible women, who played the same role as men and who, however, remained in the shadows, are of different religious denominations (Jewish, Christian, Muslim or atheist) and played a decisive role in the liberation of the country. They were all together to fight against the colonization. By doing the same things as men, they manage to give credibility and power to all women in the country, who until now had none. They are the ones who opened the breach to allow the Algerian women of today, to have more rights and freedom. These women fight doubly: Free themselves from patriarchy (father, brother and / or uncle) by fighting the colonizer.
All of this women were tortured, in jail and lost a close parent.
I wanted to Confront the past to the present. More than 50 years separated the old photo (on the left) from the recent one (on the right). This diptych photography sheds a light on History as well as a reflexion on the present: What have our fights become? How those rebellious women once pioneer could disappear from their country’s memory? What must we conclude on the condition of women in Algeria today?
Between bitterness and hope, this photo installation makes us think about History, The War of Independence in Algeria, a story told for the first time by women.
Nii Obodai
Ghana
Nii Obodai
Ghana
Nii Obodai (1968) is an Ghanaian artist and photographer, currently based between Accra (Ghana), and Maputo (Moçambique). He works across photography, audio, and text and is particularly interested in photography as a medium for recording and celebrating the unseen and the everyday in Africa.
Working primarily in black and white photography over the last two decades, his work encompasses portraiture and ethereal landscapes. Obodai’s deep interest in how the past is remembered stems in part from aphantasia, a condition which prevents him from forming images in his mind.
In 1998, he co-established Nuku Café in Accra, which evolved into Nuku Studio and later the eponymous Nuku Photo Festival, Ghana’s first photography festival. Obodai’s work has been exhibited internationally, notably in the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Moesgaard Museum in Denmark, the Addis Foto Fest in Ethiopia, the Alliance Française d’Accra in Ghana and the Bamako Encounters in Mali. He is Represented by Messum's London.
Paradox of Paradise
Paradox of Paradise’ explores my relationship with the environment as a living and mythological space bound by oral and historical stories. In Mozambique - where I currently live - the post-colonial landscape tells its own tales of how the struggle for independence from the Portuguese coloniser transitions into Mozambique. This country, one of the last African countries to rip itself from the brutalities of imperial exploitation, is rich with poetic landscape narratives of self-determination, leaving the constraints of language and the banal literality of vision. I walk through the landscape as a realm of the occult. My travels are an escape into other realities of the world, guided by the forces of the invisible. Is there another truth to be told? Can we let go of what we think is real and maybe experience something new? Who are we in relationship to Nature and the spaces we inhabit?
Paradox of Paradise
Paradox of Paradise’ explores my relationship with the environment as a living and mythological space bound by oral and historical stories. In Mozambique - where I currently live - the post-colonial landscape tells its own tales of how the struggle for independence from the Portuguese coloniser transitions into Mozambique. This country, one of the last African countries to rip itself from the brutalities of imperial exploitation, is rich with poetic landscape narratives of self-determination, leaving the constraints of language and the banal literality of vision. I walk through the landscape as a realm of the occult. My travels are an escape into other realities of the world, guided by the forces of the invisible. Is there another truth to be told? Can we let go of what we think is real and maybe experience something new? Who are we in relationship to Nature and the spaces we inhabit?
Olivier Khouadiani
Côte d'Ivoire
Olivier Khouadiani
Côte d'Ivoire
Olivier Khouadiani is an Ivorian photographer based in Abidjan. He studied finance and began a career as an auditor in 2013. He began working as a full time photographer in 2017.
In 2018, he participated in the Catchlight program under the direction of Aida Muluneh and alongside other emerging Ivorian photographers, which sparked his interest in photojournalism.
Trance
The abissa is a ceremony that commemorates the new year for the Nzima community, is a celebration of sharing and transmission between the old and new generations, especially a dance on a wild rhythm when the tam-tam resonates. Trance is a small immersion into the component of dance in my braoder series around the Abissa.
Trance
The abissa is a ceremony that commemorates the new year for the Nzima community, is a celebration of sharing and transmission between the old and new generations, especially a dance on a wild rhythm when the tam-tam resonates. Trance is a small immersion into the component of dance in my braoder series around the Abissa.
Omar Victor Diop
Senegal
Omar Victor Diop
Senegal
Omar Victor Diop (1980) is a Senegalese artist and photographer currently living and working in Dakar, he graduated from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris and is currently, exclusively represented by MAGNIN-A Gallery, in Paris. He had great success at the Rencontres de Bamako, biennial of African photography in 2011, which allowed him to shift his focus exclusively to Photography and the visual arts.
Diop’s work is distinguished by a combination of visual arts, fashion and photographic portraiture, he is particularly interested in mixing photography with other mediums including textile design, fashion design and creative writing, connecting the history and modernity of African societies whether by sublimating their lifestyles or by colouring their self-image. His various inspirations include Maryse Condé, Mama Casset, Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, and Jean-Paul Goude.
Omar Victor Diop sees his journey as one in which he has found himself on the side of minorities who need to learn from models of adaptation to different contexts and new ways of being.
In his new series, Allegoria, the Senegalese photographer begins a new chapter that addresses the issue of the environment and the importance of the climate challenges facing the African continent. In 15 allegorical photographs, the artist embodies the humanity that must protect life; humanity surrounded by floral and animal species that will soon be extinct; humanity again, concerned not to see biodiversity only visible in natural history textbooks.
Allegoria - 2021
After the success of his first two series, Diaspora and Liberty, Omar Victor Diop unveils Allegoria. The Senegalese photographer begins a new chapter that addresses the issue of the environment and the importance of the challenges the African Continent is facing. In 15 allegorical photographs, the artist embodies humanity that must protect life, humanity surrounded by endangered floral and animal species; humanity again, concerned to see biodiversity become a memory that can only be consulted in natural history textbooks. Diop states: “It’s been exactly ten years since I grabbed a camera with the intention of showing my people’s struggle, their moments of pride, their selflessness, their incredible diversity and adaptability. In this new conversation I hope to see us participate and take the lead in the global environmental movement”
Allegoria - 2021
After the success of his first two series, Diaspora and Liberty, Omar Victor Diop unveils Allegoria. The Senegalese photographer begins a new chapter that addresses the issue of the environment and the importance of the challenges the African Continent is facing. In 15 allegorical photographs, the artist embodies humanity that must protect life, humanity surrounded by endangered floral and animal species; humanity again, concerned to see biodiversity become a memory that can only be consulted in natural history textbooks. Diop states: “It’s been exactly ten years since I grabbed a camera with the intention of showing my people’s struggle, their moments of pride, their selflessness, their incredible diversity and adaptability. In this new conversation I hope to see us participate and take the lead in the global environmental movement”
Omoregie Osakpolor
Nigeria
Omoregie Osakpolor
Nigeria
Omoregie Osakpolor is an emerging documentary photographer and filmmaker living in Lagos,
Nigeria. He received his BA (Hons) in English and Literature from the University of Benin, Edo
State.
He is presently a mentee at the Nlele Institute Mentorship Programme and a member of 1884
Collective. He was nominated for the Edwin George Prize for Photography at The Future Africa
Awards in 2017.
Omoregie believes photography, and art generally can be a source for societal change and
hopes to engage his audience and the society in general in cultural interactions. His work
focuses primarily on social justice and culture.
He has been referenced on CNN Africa, BBC, Quartz and by leading Nigerian blogs and art
journals and has shown his works in both solo and group exhibitions in Lagos, Abuja, Benin
City, North Carolina, Fotohof, Salzburg, Bournemouth University (Arts By the Sea 2019), UK
and at the 12th Bamako Biennale (2019). His short film, Grey which was partly inspired by Ed
Kashi’s Aging in America, won the Fashola Photography Foundation Prize (2019).
Litany (On Going)
“We are living a historical moment which could engender a sense of reawakening and assertiveness among Africans that could guide us through the difficult journey our ancestors started in the 20th century. Indeed, decolonisation may well be fast-tracked because of the threat of a pathogen.”
—David Mwambari
“Stay at home and flatten the curve” has been the mantra and major response by countries across the world, including Nigeria. According to the government, the stay-at-home order in most parts of the country would help curb the spread of coronavirus.
While the government has demanded that the people make this sacrifice for themselves and for the love of the country, the people are demanding basic social welfare packages, a demand they have been making to the political class for decades unending.
Three weeks into the 28 days stay-at-home order in Nigeria’s most populous city, Lagos, the capital city, Abuja and Ogun (a few kilometres from Lagos), a group of armed robbers and thugs unleashed mayhem on the residents of Lagos and some parts of Ogun State. The heists seemed coordinated, as they happened simultaneously in different places. In response to this, youths from the affected communities have organised themselves into vigilance committees to keep watch over their neighbourhoods at night.
Some experts have stated that the robberies are a direct consequence of the lockdown order by the government. According to these experts, the lockdown being a copy and paste prototype from the West is an unrealistic approach in this climate for many reasons, one of which is the fact that most of the population depends on the informal economy for their daily needs.
With so much uncertainty about the economic and political landscape in post COVID19 Nigeria, many are hoping the crisis births a different Nigeria where policymakers are truly at the service of the people. Others, on the other hand, want things to return to normal.
Litany is a multimedia project (using WhatsApp voice notes from subjects, videography and photography) showing my reflection on the ongoing COVID19 pandemic crisis in Nigeria and the questions I have had to ask myself of late. It reflects the spirit of the times and asks the many questions tugging in my mind and the minds of millions of Nigerians: what does post COVID19 Nigeria look like? Would there be a mental revolution in the political class? What would the economy look like? Would the crisis put an end to health tourism amongst the political class? Is it time to truly look inwards and develop an indigenous system of government that is pro Nigerian?
Litany (On Going)
“We are living a historical moment which could engender a sense of reawakening and assertiveness among Africans that could guide us through the difficult journey our ancestors started in the 20th century. Indeed, decolonisation may well be fast-tracked because of the threat of a pathogen.”
—David Mwambari
“Stay at home and flatten the curve” has been the mantra and major response by countries across the world, including Nigeria. According to the government, the stay-at-home order in most parts of the country would help curb the spread of coronavirus.
While the government has demanded that the people make this sacrifice for themselves and for the love of the country, the people are demanding basic social welfare packages, a demand they have been making to the political class for decades unending.
Three weeks into the 28 days stay-at-home order in Nigeria’s most populous city, Lagos, the capital city, Abuja and Ogun (a few kilometres from Lagos), a group of armed robbers and thugs unleashed mayhem on the residents of Lagos and some parts of Ogun State. The heists seemed coordinated, as they happened simultaneously in different places. In response to this, youths from the affected communities have organised themselves into vigilance committees to keep watch over their neighbourhoods at night.
Some experts have stated that the robberies are a direct consequence of the lockdown order by the government. According to these experts, the lockdown being a copy and paste prototype from the West is an unrealistic approach in this climate for many reasons, one of which is the fact that most of the population depends on the informal economy for their daily needs.
With so much uncertainty about the economic and political landscape in post COVID19 Nigeria, many are hoping the crisis births a different Nigeria where policymakers are truly at the service of the people. Others, on the other hand, want things to return to normal.
Litany is a multimedia project (using WhatsApp voice notes from subjects, videography and photography) showing my reflection on the ongoing COVID19 pandemic crisis in Nigeria and the questions I have had to ask myself of late. It reflects the spirit of the times and asks the many questions tugging in my mind and the minds of millions of Nigerians: what does post COVID19 Nigeria look like? Would there be a mental revolution in the political class? What would the economy look like? Would the crisis put an end to health tourism amongst the political class? Is it time to truly look inwards and develop an indigenous system of government that is pro Nigerian? 
P.Wamaitha Ng'ang'a
Kenya
P.Wamaitha Ng'ang'a
Kenya
Wamaitha Ng'ang'a is a Kenyan-British artist based in London (England). She holds dual degrees in Photography and Media (First class BA Hons), and Masters Degree in Campaigning and Social Change from the University of Westminster, England.
Growing up in Kenya, she followed humanitarian paths, discovering her own potential to use visual media to help bring about change. Wamaitha confronts human rights and social challenges through visual representation, exploring ways to address issues with empathy and an ethical core. Her studies brought deeper appreciation of theories of change and the role of media and communication in these issues.
Her current focus is centered on gender, human rights issues, culture and identity using mixed media and documentary photography techniques. Wamaitha is also undertaking an archiving project looking at the history and culture of East Africa. She has worked with NGOs and government agencies and is available for local and international assignments.
Wamaitha has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at the Freerange Exhibition (2016, U.K) and Migrant’s Voice (2012, U.K). She was a panelist at The Imperial White City Incubator (UK) on the subject of Photography on gender issues, Strengths and Limits (2019) and a speaker at the Autograph ABP (2019).
SEASONS
“I am my own muse, the subject I know best, the subject I want to better.” Oroma Elewa Drawing inspiration from Elewa’s words, Seasons is a mixed-media project, with which she seeks to depict her personal journey with Scoliosis and Poland Syndrome. Both conditions became evident in her adolescent years, however, the latter only being diagnosed correctly in 2018. Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is an abnormal curvature of the spine that appears in late childhood or adolescence. Instead of growing straight, the spine develops a side-to-side curvature, usually in an elongated ‘S’ or ‘C’ shape. Scoliosis can occur as a feature of other conditions, including a variety of genetic syndromes. Poland syndrome is a disorder wherein affected individuals are born with missing or underdeveloped muscles on one side of the body, resulting in abnormalities that can affect the chest, shoulder, arm, and hand. “I am on a daily journey of discovery with the resolve to keep pushing through the physical pain and psychological effects. Just as the seasons come and go, the morning Sun prevails in his persistence to overthrow the darkness once again. I emulate this certain daily ritual with my own, personal struggle powered by my will embracing my journey - fighting, enduring, rising again. Following my instincts, but forever cognisant of the stormy seas and the ensuing calm that surely lags nearby, I find solace in knowing I will become a Butterfly again… The Never ending Metamorphosis happens once again.”
SEASONS
“I am my own muse, the subject I know best, the subject I want to better.” Oroma Elewa Drawing inspiration from Elewa’s words, Seasons is a mixed-media project, with which she seeks to depict her personal journey with Scoliosis and Poland Syndrome. Both conditions became evident in her adolescent years, however, the latter only being diagnosed correctly in 2018. Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is an abnormal curvature of the spine that appears in late childhood or adolescence. Instead of growing straight, the spine develops a side-to-side curvature, usually in an elongated ‘S’ or ‘C’ shape. Scoliosis can occur as a feature of other conditions, including a variety of genetic syndromes. Poland syndrome is a disorder wherein affected individuals are born with missing or underdeveloped muscles on one side of the body, resulting in abnormalities that can affect the chest, shoulder, arm, and hand. “I am on a daily journey of discovery with the resolve to keep pushing through the physical pain and psychological effects. Just as the seasons come and go, the morning Sun prevails in his persistence to overthrow the darkness once again. I emulate this certain daily ritual with my own, personal struggle powered by my will embracing my journey - fighting, enduring, rising again. Following my instincts, but forever cognisant of the stormy seas and the ensuing calm that surely lags nearby, I find solace in knowing I will become a Butterfly again… The Never ending Metamorphosis happens once again.”
Pango N'fa Pierre
Côte d'Ivoire
Pango N'fa Pierre
Côte d'Ivoire
Born in 1995 in Agboville in Côte d'Ivoire, N'fa Pierre Michel is one of the heirs of the PANGO family, the lineage of which the most famous of them is Abbé Pierre Michel, author and composer of the national anthem of Côte d'Ivoire, l'Abidjanaise. But around these music lovers, he wanted to stand out and make his art: photography. After a passage at the Institute of Sciences and Techniques of Communication in Abidjan to specialize in 3D, he discovered photography at 21 years old by following his friends photographer during their various performances. Although a total novice, he quickly understood the opportunity that was offered to him, but above all he understood that in order to get to the top, he had to stand out. Through social networks and particularly the visual social network par excellence Instagram, a world of possibilities opens up to him.
Initially generalist he is very quickly influenced by the Marvel universe with a note of Afro futurism. Also very sensitive to spirituality, spirits, deities and other supernatural instances, his first works are quickly oriented in this direction.
These works, a mix between graphic design and photography, give surrealist renderings, which make you dream, surprise or (re)give life to fictitious characters or from the past.
"I define myself very often as a painter who uses a camera, my works create debate. For some I would move away from the true nature of photography, supposed to capture reality, but I think they are mostly afraid to see their dreams or nightmares materialized. I make art, photography finally imposed limits on my ideas. I needed to break the chains so I could make timeless works." Today, thanks to his performances, he has been able to collaborate with a number of institutions and companies such as the French Institute of Côte d'Ivoire, Facebook, etc... He has also participated in group exhibitions and has also been nominated for two awards at African Talent Award and West Africa photography Award. For his next news, N'fa Pierre Michel PANGO, the descendant plans to organize his first solo exhibition. Exporting his family name would be the ultimate goal, why not through a collaboration with the world famous American franchise: Marvel.
Wetu
Does martyrdom reveal the nobility of bloodshed? Between generational patterns and hopes for the future, Wetu, Our People, in Swahili, proposes to question the origins of identity. A bestial fatherhood, a woman bearing abundance and the heir to a throne made of the strings of his lineage. The notion of "Identity" then becomes nomadic, changing and even paradoxical: it is in perpetual motion, evolving with time and the experiences of each individual or group. to each one or to a group.
Wetu
Does martyrdom reveal the nobility of bloodshed? Between generational patterns and hopes for the future, Wetu, Our People, in Swahili, proposes to question the origins of identity. A bestial fatherhood, a woman bearing abundance and the heir to a throne made of the strings of his lineage. The notion of "Identity" then becomes nomadic, changing and even paradoxical: it is in perpetual motion, evolving with time and the experiences of each individual or group. to each one or to a group.
Bah Ekam Richard
Côte d'Ivoire
Bah Ekam Richard
Côte d'Ivoire
I am Bah Ekam Richard Edric Miessan. And my artist name is The Sun. I am a writer, poet, director and photographer. I am 28 years old.
I started photography in 2017 and in 2020 I decided to specialize in artistic nude photography because I had found in it, the right tool that allowed me to explore themes that are particularly close to my heart such as: gender inequality or themes such as soul, truth, freedom, love, self love.
I am passionate about art, I live only for art, so much so that in 2018, I stopped university when I was in psychology college to devote myself to photography and writing.
Then in 2019, I started working as a photography fellow at Voodoo communication. I stayed there for two years, before going to work at life tv for 3 months, and then quit because I had reached a point where I needed to make a living from my art.
Death and Hope
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«Death and Hope» is a series of nude photographs, inspired by an impossible love. Indeed, her name was Hope, and when grief came knocking at my door, I turned that pain into a work in which I tried hope. And like most of my photographs, this work was also born from a poem I wrote. So when my art is not sunshine and warmth. When it is not sword and shield. When it is not introspection. It is the bandage of my heart.
Death and Hope
Sammy Baloji
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Sammy Baloji
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Sammy Baloji (1978. Lubumbashi, DR Congo) lives and works between Lubumbashi and Brussels, he is currently completing his PhD artistic research project Contemporary Kasala and Lukasa: towards a Reconfiguration of Identity and Geopolitics at Sint Lucas Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium.
Since 2005, Sammy Baloji has been exploring the memory and history of the Democratic Republic of Congo. His research-based work is borne from the cultural, architectural and industrial heritage of the Katanga region, as well as a questioning of the impact of Belgian colonisation in the D.R.C.
Baloji’s use of photographic archives allows him to manipulate time and space, comparing ancient colonial narratives with contemporary economic imperialism. His video works, installations and photographic series highlight how identities are shaped, transformed, perverted and reinvented. His critical view of contemporary societies is a warning about how cultural clichés continue to shape collective memories and thus allow social and political power games to continue to dictate human behaviour. As he stated in a recent interview: “I’m not interested in colonialism as nostalgia, or in it as a thing of the past, but in the continuation of that system.”
A Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, he has received numerous fellowships, awards and distinctions, notably at the African Photography Encounters of Bamako and the Dakar Biennale, and was a laureate of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. He was a resident of the French Academy of Rome – Villa Medici (2019-2020). He has been teaching at the Sommerakademie in Salzburg since 2018, and co-founded Rencontres Picha/Biennale de Lubumbashi in 2008.
His recent solo exhibitions include K(C)ongo, Fragments of Interlaced Dialogues, Beaux-Arts de Paris (2021); Sammy Baloji, Other Tales, Lund Konsthall and Aarhus Kunsthal (2020); Congo, Fragments d’une histoire, Le Point du Jour, Cherbourg (2019); A Blueprint for Toads and Snakes, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (2018); Sven Augustijnen & Sammy Baloji Museumcultuur Strombeek (2018); Urban Now : City Life in Congo, Sammy Baloji and Filip de Boeck, The Power Plant, Toronto and WIELS, Brussels (2016-2017), and Hunting and Collecting, Mu. ZEE Kunstmuseum aan zee, Ostend (2014). He has recently participated in the Sydney Biennial (2020), documenta 14 (Kassel/Athens, 2017), the Lyon Biennial (2015), the Venice Biennial (2015), the Photoquai Festival at the Musée du Quai Branly (Paris, 2015).
Essay on Urban Planning, 2013
Essay on Urban Planning consists of 12 colour photographs, mixing past and present aerial views of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with entomological displays of flies and mosquitoes from the region. Between 1918 and 1951 in Lubumbashi, urban planning and inhabitants were subjected to a health campaign set up in the city to combat malaria. The aerial views of the city in Essay on Urban Planning show the separation between the urban centre and the peripheral suburbs by a strip of land — a cordon sanitaire — of about 500m wide, oriented according to the direction in which the wind blows. This was believed to be the maximum distance that a mosquito can travel in one go. Juxtaposing aerial views with panels of fly specimens, the work reflects how - under hygienic pretexts - these elements reflect the policy of the racial segregation of the colonial era. A 1929 archive photo installed to the right of the checkerboard of images completes the work, the photograph depicts two boys sitting in front of a pile of dead flies, reminding us of the practice that each worker had to kill 50 flies in order to get his daily food allowance. As such, the colonial narratives of the past are superimposed on the economic and ecological imperialism of today.
Essay on Urban Planning, 2013
Essay on Urban Planning consists of 12 colour photographs, mixing past and present aerial views of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with entomological displays of flies and mosquitoes from the region. Between 1918 and 1951 in Lubumbashi, urban planning and inhabitants were subjected to a health campaign set up in the city to combat malaria. The aerial views of the city in Essay on Urban Planning show the separation between the urban centre and the peripheral suburbs by a strip of land — a cordon sanitaire — of about 500m wide, oriented according to the direction in which the wind blows. This was believed to be the maximum distance that a mosquito can travel in one go. Juxtaposing aerial views with panels of fly specimens, the work reflects how - under hygienic pretexts - these elements reflect the policy of the racial segregation of the colonial era. A 1929 archive photo installed to the right of the checkerboard of images completes the work, the photograph depicts two boys sitting in front of a pile of dead flies, reminding us of the practice that each worker had to kill 50 flies in order to get his daily food allowance. As such, the colonial narratives of the past are superimposed on the economic and ecological imperialism of today.
Sekai Machache
Zimbabwe
Sekai Machache
Zimbabwe
Sekai Machache is a visual artist and curator based in Dundee, Scotland. Her work is a deep interrogation of the notion of self. Having been born in Zimbabwe and raised in Scotland, she has a particular interest in W.E.B Dubois’ notion of Double Consciousness, which expresses the psychological challenge of having African heritage whilst living in the West. She is interested in the relationship between spirituality, imagination and the role of the artist in disseminating symbolic imagery to provide a space for healing. Working in a multi-disciplinary practice, her photographs are formulated through digital studio based compositions utilising body paint and muted lighting conditions to create images that appear to emerge from darkness.
Machache works internationally with her most recent work taking her to Brazil where she produced a cross-cultural project which was supported by a Creative Scotland and British Council partnership. She often works collaboratively, for and within her community and is a founding and organizing member of the Yon Afro Collective.
Machache is an artist in residence and associate staff member of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee. She is also currently working on a cross-cultural exchange project titled Body of Land which is produced and facilitated by Focas Scotland. Body of Land is a new Art new Audiences (nAnA) grantee, funded through the British Council’s East Africa Programme.
Body of Land: Ritual Manifestations
Body of Land has been developed out of a year-long collaborative residency which was facilitated by Focas Scotland and supported by the British Council East Africa’s New Art New Audiences (nAnA grant).
Working with digital images, objects and performative gestures, Sekai Machache’s Body of Land: Ritual Manifestations represents several stages of an imagined ritual. The series tells a compelling story of liminality and encounters beyond the body. Machache conjures visions of the ancestral plane, a space beyond death and revival.
Initially, the artist is visited in a dream by The Oracle, who relays an important message, then in A Silent Gifting, she is gifted with several objects to use in a ritual. Her series The III Aspects of She explores the idea that the human psyche, the soul and the governing principles of the universe are split into three aspects.
Each aspect portrayed through a black femme body guised in three symbolic colors that represent and challenge our perceptions of the divine. The Black Aspect: Nyama Yake – A depiction of something of the material, the structure of the body. The White Aspect: Zamani – Ethereal, resolute and disembodied, a spirit, an apparition. The Red Aspect: Mweya – The energy that animates the body.
Body of Land: Ritual Manifestations
Body of Land has been developed out of a year-long collaborative residency which was facilitated by Focas Scotland and supported by the British Council East Africa’s New Art New Audiences (nAnA grant).
Working with digital images, objects and performative gestures, Sekai Machache’s Body of Land: Ritual Manifestations represents several stages of an imagined ritual. The series tells a compelling story of liminality and encounters beyond the body. Machache conjures visions of the ancestral plane, a space beyond death and revival.
Initially, the artist is visited in a dream by The Oracle, who relays an important message, then in A Silent Gifting, she is gifted with several objects to use in a ritual. Her series The III Aspects of She explores the idea that the human psyche, the soul and the governing principles of the universe are split into three aspects.
Each aspect portrayed through a black femme body guised in three symbolic colors that represent and challenge our perceptions of the divine. The Black Aspect: Nyama Yake – A depiction of something of the material, the structure of the body. The White Aspect: Zamani – Ethereal, resolute and disembodied, a spirit, an apparition. The Red Aspect: Mweya – The energy that animates the body. 
Sinaw Medine
Eritrea
Sinaw Medine
Eritrea
Sinaw Medine is an Eritrean self-taught photographer and photojournalist, living and working in France since 2009.
His work is largely narrative driven and explores ideas and issues concerning social justice, specifically around migration and exile.
Medine received an award from the Society for News Design in 2018 for his work in the Washington Post, covering the stories of the survivors of the Mediterranean refugee rescues.
He has notably led the Forgotten Eritrean Refugees story on the history of Eritrean refugees in camps in the Tigray region northern Ethiopia, since 2019, and was the National Geographic Explorer grantee in 2019 and 2021.
Les routes de l’exil
Part of a long-term documentary project on exile, this photographic investigation explores different stages of border crossing with the backdrop of the dangers faced on the roads to European borders. More than just a migration crisis, it is a humanitarian tragedy occurring in the Mediterranean and on European soil. Facing the inertia of governments and the tightening of migration policy, citizens are getting involved and organising to help exiled people, a commitment that reflects a duty of humanity. Onboard the Aquarius, a rescue boat chartered in 2016, humanitarian aid workers patrol the Mediterranean and operate rescue between Libya and Italy. Fleeing conflicts and instability, refugees will pay the price to recover freedom; in the conditions imposed by the smugglers, crossing the Mediterranean is dangerous, with many shipwrecks and numerous missing. Most survivors are still under post-traumatic stress after horrific abuses in Libya. After the crossing, the roads used by exiles in Europe remain dangerous, as the tragedies to reach the UK or the border Alps, where the right of asylum is often mistreated. In Ventimiglia, at the Franco-Italian border in 2015 when border controls within the Schengen area were re-established, hundreds of refugees found themselves trapped in a precarious and uncertain situation.
Les routes de l’exil
Part of a long-term documentary project on exile, this photographic investigation explores different stages of border crossing with the backdrop of the dangers faced on the roads to European borders. More than just a migration crisis, it is a humanitarian tragedy occurring in the Mediterranean and on European soil. Facing the inertia of governments and the tightening of migration policy, citizens are getting involved and organising to help exiled people, a commitment that reflects a duty of humanity. Onboard the Aquarius, a rescue boat chartered in 2016, humanitarian aid workers patrol the Mediterranean and operate rescue between Libya and Italy. Fleeing conflicts and instability, refugees will pay the price to recover freedom; in the conditions imposed by the smugglers, crossing the Mediterranean is dangerous, with many shipwrecks and numerous missing. Most survivors are still under post-traumatic stress after horrific abuses in Libya. After the crossing, the roads used by exiles in Europe remain dangerous, as the tragedies to reach the UK or the border Alps, where the right of asylum is often mistreated. In Ventimiglia, at the Franco-Italian border in 2015 when border controls within the Schengen area were re-established, hundreds of refugees found themselves trapped in a precarious and uncertain situation.
Tedos Teffera
Ethiopia
Tedos Teffera
Ethiopia
Tedos Teffera is an Ethiopian photographer based in Addis Ababa, he works as a junior creative director at Astar Advertising.
Teffera is interested in the power of photography as a mediator of the human experience. His photographic collection entitled Intent aimed to capture the human experience in relation to the objects and ideas that each person holds dear to them, at a specific time.
The stretched boundaries, charged emotions and leaps taken in fulfilment and acknowledgment of those cherished desires were the core themes that made for this series and also make for most of Teffera’s photography.
Teffera has exhibited his work in Addis Foto Fest and submitted his work for international awards including Exposure Award (2018).
The Matrix Of Perception
our perception has its own matrix. In the vault where our consciousness lies -- time is bent and thoughts take form. The process is individualistic but powerful In this realm you can be the creator and the prisoner.
The Matrix Of Perception
our perception has its own matrix. In the vault where our consciousness lies -- time is bent and thoughts take form. The process is individualistic but powerful In this realm you can be the creator and the prisoner.
Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo
South Africa
Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo
South Africa
Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo (1993) is a South African photographer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He joined the Of Soul and Joy Photography Initiative in 2016, and completed a course in the Advanced Programme in Photography at The Market Photo Workshop in 2018.
Hlatshwayo won the prize for Contemporary African Photography (CAP) in 2019 with his Slaghuis series and received the Gisèle Wulfsohn Mentorship in Photography in 2019, for the continuation of the seires.
Hlatswayo uses photography to confront complexities within social issues that surround him, more specifically the underlying social issues that come with growing up in a shebeen (an illegal tavern) in Johannesburg, as seen in his award winning photographic series entitled Slaghuis.
Hlatswayo’s solo exhibition (2020) serving as a sequel to Slaghuis, entitled Slaghuis II at the Market Photo Workshop Gallery, Johannesburg. Slaghuis II was his first solo exhibition.
His work has been exhibited widely in group exhibitions at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, in Switzerland for his series entitled Because The Night (2019),and in IAF Basel Festival, CAP Prize (2019) with his series entitled RMB Talent Unlocked. His work has also appeared in Turbine Art Fair (2018) and In Thokoza: Place of Peace, Johannesburg and published in NICE Magazine
SLAAGHUIS
“My room is a mess. I can’t keep it tidy. I don’t try hard enough. I am ashamed. I am accountable. I am afraid. I am angry. I want out. I want to get bloody violent. Is it passed on? Is it intergenerational? I have a fear of being an adult with a really messed up room. Something's not quite appealing in that. Growing up in a home with a tavern, I have been confronted with realities that made me want to escape the space. A place of refuge or safe haven should have been my home, but it couldn’t be because it was the extension of the tavern. Maybe my mind – but it too was violated. It became a tricky escape. The violence and schizophrenia of a society would be enveloped in this one space. It was ‘my bread and butter’— it’s infamy coined ‘Slaaghuis’. Loudest in their silence, I confront the unresolved issues I have with the tavern. I confront my violated or perhaps traumatised mind. I confront the memory. A drunken violence. A drunken depression. A drunken fear. A drunken lust. A drunken happiness. A drunken abuse. A drunken love. A drunken rape. A drunken fuck. A drunken anxiety. A drunken death. Societal trauma. The personal is political. The microcosm is the macrocosm. And vice versa.”
SLAAGHUIS
“My room is a mess. I can’t keep it tidy. I don’t try hard enough. I am ashamed. I am accountable. I am afraid. I am angry. I want out. I want to get bloody violent. Is it passed on? Is it intergenerational? I have a fear of being an adult with a really messed up room. Something's not quite appealing in that. Growing up in a home with a tavern, I have been confronted with realities that made me want to escape the space. A place of refuge or safe haven should have been my home, but it couldn’t be because it was the extension of the tavern. Maybe my mind – but it too was violated. It became a tricky escape. The violence and schizophrenia of a society would be enveloped in this one space. It was ‘my bread and butter’— it’s infamy coined ‘Slaaghuis’. Loudest in their silence, I confront the unresolved issues I have with the tavern. I confront my violated or perhaps traumatised mind. I confront the memory. A drunken violence. A drunken depression. A drunken fear. A drunken lust. A drunken happiness. A drunken abuse. A drunken love. A drunken rape. A drunken fuck. A drunken anxiety. A drunken death. Societal trauma. The personal is political. The microcosm is the macrocosm. And vice versa.”
Tsoku Maela
South Africa
Tsoku Maela
South Africa
Tsoku Maela is a South African photographer working predominantly across photography, film and text. By borrowing from Surrealist and Afrofuturist visual traditions, his work explores the motivations that preceed societal issues through the observation and study of human behaviour and psyche in hopes of creating a universal understanding these motivations, by way of dialogue.
His work has been featured on CNN: African Voices, Hyperallergic, VICE, GUP magazine, and showcased in South Africa, Lagos, Zurich and Miami Art Basel at PULSE contemporary Art fair (his work forming part of the top 10 picks by Pérez Art Museum). He is also part of Contemporary Art Curator magazines debut publication 100 Artists of the Future (2019) and was shortlisted for the CAP prize (2019). His work has also been exhibited in the United Kingdom to raise awareness around mental health and in the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, archived as part of their Transition publication.
His work exists in private collections including M&C SAATCHI Contemporary Art Collection, JP Morgan Abadali Art Collection and Amawal private art collection of Jorge Fernandez in Spain. Concerned with the human condition, the visceral, spiritual, socio economic and geo-political landscapes, the conversations many consider too taboo to grant space and time - his only desire is to set a fire of love and hope in the heart of anyone who comes across his work, to inspire youthful energy that seeks to create and fight for sustainable change while archiving a beautiful and ever evolving African past, present and future.
Barongwa: I am that I am
Barongwa is a word found in the Northern Sotho family of dialects in South Africa, which translates into guardians or angels, often used when referring to ancestral beings. It is the Sepedi customary practice to pay tribute and acknowledge the ancestors as our guardians and angels of the all-knowing God. In stark contrast to the Christian belief, to which many Sepedi people subscribe, dismisses the existence of ancestors and relegates them to “false gods”. Ultimately, one is not allowed to believe both stories, but is persuaded to choose, oftentimes in the favour of Western Christian belief. Barongwa challenges this line of thinking by combining stories from multiple beliefs, Christianity, Ancestral worship, Taoism and the gnostics, to find a divine message or the divine code embedded in the collective memory of each. From the Creation of Man being a combination of the divine feminine and masculine, to Anointing them with the gift that will allow the soul to face oneself through the state of Bardo before witnessing and experiencing their rebirth in the state Christ consciousness, the harmonious balance between mind, body and soul. The newly actualized self no longer sees themselves separate from the ya ́ ng part of God (or the source), but perceives themselves as an extension and of the same fabric as ya ́ ng God. They too are creators of worlds and destinies, guided by the divine collective memory that manifests through their intuition. I attempted to think, not of the human, but the African human. The melanated human. How our thinking of ourselves, our feeling of ourselves, our speaking of ourselves and indeed the God within ourselves has been corrupted into a white God. Barongwa takes place in the light. Yáng. It is a process of awakening. An awakening to the God in us all. An awakening to our higher self. A rewriting of the collective African consciousness.
Barongwa: I am that I am
Barongwa is a word found in the Northern Sotho family of dialects in South Africa, which translates into guardians or angels, often used when referring to ancestral beings. It is the Sepedi customary practice to pay tribute and acknowledge the ancestors as our guardians and angels of the all-knowing God. In stark contrast to the Christian belief, to which many Sepedi people subscribe, dismisses the existence of ancestors and relegates them to “false gods”. Ultimately, one is not allowed to believe both stories, but is persuaded to choose, oftentimes in the favour of Western Christian belief. Barongwa challenges this line of thinking by combining stories from multiple beliefs, Christianity, Ancestral worship, Taoism and the gnostics, to find a divine message or the divine code embedded in the collective memory of each. From the Creation of Man being a combination of the divine feminine and masculine, to Anointing them with the gift that will allow the soul to face oneself through the state of Bardo before witnessing and experiencing their rebirth in the state Christ consciousness, the harmonious balance between mind, body and soul. The newly actualized self no longer sees themselves separate from the ya ́ ng part of God (or the source), but perceives themselves as an extension and of the same fabric as ya ́ ng God. They too are creators of worlds and destinies, guided by the divine collective memory that manifests through their intuition. I attempted to think, not of the human, but the African human. The melanated human. How our thinking of ourselves, our feeling of ourselves, our speaking of ourselves and indeed the God within ourselves has been corrupted into a white God. Barongwa takes place in the light. Yáng. It is a process of awakening. An awakening to the God in us all. An awakening to our higher self. A rewriting of the collective African consciousness.
Uche Okpa-Iroha
Nigeria
Uche Okpa-Iroha
Nigeria
Uche Okpa-Iroha is a Nigerian multidisciplinary artist who mainly adopts photography as his preferred medium of artistic expression, he holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Food Science and Technology from The Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria
He is a two-time winner of the Seydou Keita Award for the best photography at the 8th and 10th Bamako Encounters for the Under Bridge Life and The Plantation Boy projects in 2009 and 2015 respectively. He also received the Jean Paul Blachere prize in 2009.
Okpa-Iroha is a contributor to several publications including Lagos – The City at Work, Nigerians behind the lens, Unifying Africa and Urban Cadence – Street Scenes from Lagos and Johannesburg. He was among the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass selection committee in 2016.
He is an ex-resident and alumnus of the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2011- 2012), and lives and works in Lagos as a photographer, founder/director of the photography platforms – The Nlele Institute (TNI) and the Lagos OPEN RANGE.
The Plantation Boy
This project was completed during the final year of Uche Okpa-Iroha’s two-year residency at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. The Plantation Boy project consists of two series of images that collectively examine the power structures of race and the hegemony of Western culture in the film industry. This is currently the primary focus in Okpa-Iroha’s recent artistic output. As the title suggests the project examines struggles within the black communities (including African diaspora) and the quest for freedom and self-determination that arose during slavery and its global impact on black lives.
In “The Plantation Boy” Okpa-Iroha meticulously positioned himself in the various scenes through careful strategies of reconstruction and reenactment. The artist intervenes in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 Hollywood movie “The Godfather” by isolating and utilizing forty original film stills from this seminal motion picture. Through a process of digital reconstructions, the artist disrupts an iconic Hollywood feature film with the presence (or introduction) of an African among the familial gangs of Italian-American subculture. In so doing he was able to bring to the fore the politics of representation in Western cinematic culture that is often marked by a striking absence of black actors. The Plantation Boy was a means to question stereotypical and subservient representations of the African identity by taking center stage and bringing it (the African identity) to the fore.
The Plantation Boy
This project was completed during the final year of Uche Okpa-Iroha’s two-year residency at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. The Plantation Boy project consists of two series of images that collectively examine the power structures of race and the hegemony of Western culture in the film industry. This is currently the primary focus in Okpa-Iroha’s recent artistic output. As the title suggests the project examines struggles within the black communities (including African diaspora) and the quest for freedom and self-determination that arose during slavery and its global impact on black lives.
In “The Plantation Boy” Okpa-Iroha meticulously positioned himself in the various scenes through careful strategies of reconstruction and reenactment. The artist intervenes in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 Hollywood movie “The Godfather” by isolating and utilizing forty original film stills from this seminal motion picture. Through a process of digital reconstructions, the artist disrupts an iconic Hollywood feature film with the presence (or introduction) of an African among the familial gangs of Italian-American subculture. In so doing he was able to bring to the fore the politics of representation in Western cinematic culture that is often marked by a striking absence of black actors. The Plantation Boy was a means to question stereotypical and subservient representations of the African identity by taking center stage and bringing it (the African identity) to the fore.
Yafet Daniel
Ethiopia
Yafet Daniel
Ethiopia
Yafet Daniel is an Ethiopian photographer, and media studies graduate.
Daniel understands the potential of photography to communicate and transmit events that happen in the present, in real-time and the impact that those events have on future generations.
Daniel began his photographic exploration by documenting his surroundings with his cell-phone camera, and since that time he cultivated an interest in documenting the streets of Addis Ababa and Ethiopia more broadly, capturing landscapes, different cultures and people from different backgrounds and telling their stories with his photography.
The Believers II
Yafet explores the life of religious students of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, locally known as ‘Ye Abenet Temariwoch’ who travel long distances from their homes to attend classes in remote monasteries, learning the secrets and bases of the Church. The collection looks at the students who - despite completing the hard training - may not necessarily become deacons or priests.
The Believers II
Yafet explores the life of religious students of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, locally known as ‘Ye Abenet Temariwoch’ who travel long distances from their homes to attend classes in remote monasteries, learning the secrets and bases of the Church. The collection looks at the students who - despite completing the hard training - may not necessarily become deacons or priests.
Yonas Tadesse
Ethiopia
Yonas Tadesse
Ethiopia
Yonas Tadesse is a self-taught artist and photographer born in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), where he currently lives and works. His photographic practice hinges on an attempt to shift the narrative of Africa, showcasing its rich history to the world.
From a young age, he has been fascinated by the Fine Arts and curious about the stories of others. His drive as an artist comes from the unique stories of the people in his photographs and the ability to communicate those narratives through his photographs.
Tadesse has exhibited and published his work widely in exhibitions such as Addis Foto Fest (2014), as well as in various news media outlets and photography publications including The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, CNN, Al Jazeera, The Gaurdian, Bloomberg, BBC, Vogue Italia, and Vogue Germany.
He has partnered with the United Nations, AFP/Getty Images and various international organizations such as WaterAid and GIZ. He has also been featured as a workshop host and functions as a mentor for Addis Foto Fest.
For the last three years, Tadesse has been working on an ongoing personal series and book centered around Ethiopian traditional tattoos, the repatriation of Rastafarians, and the Afar people of Ethiopia
Finding Meaning in Pandemic
The first case of COVID-19 was reported in Ethiopia on 13th of March where a team of first responders took in a 48-year-old Japanese man. Having never seen anything like this in their lifetime, they did not know what to prepare for and thus started their new normal of battling the Corona Virus in Ethiopia. Doctors, nurses, janitors, security guards, drivers donned hats they’ve never expected to uphold and they worked to make up this moving machine at the cost of their health, their families, their reputations and of course, their lives. Patients find themselves uprooted from their normal day to day and into this fight for their lives where they often contemplate existential matters and try their best to hold on to hope despite everything.Patients and medical personnel alike try to find comfort in one another during this trying time, making family of one another as they leave their real families behind for their own safety. All sense of purpose evaporates in these rooms where terrified patients and helpless doctors try to save the day. No one knows where this will go and yet they will all tell you, as if they’d previously practiced together, that they must be there for a reason. And they try their best to make it a worthwhile reason. These are the heroes of the pandemic.
Finding Meaning in Pandemic
The first case of COVID-19 was reported in Ethiopia on 13th of March where a team of first responders took in a 48-year-old Japanese man. Having never seen anything like this in their lifetime, they did not know what to prepare for and thus started their new normal of battling the Corona Virus in Ethiopia. Doctors, nurses, janitors, security guards, drivers donned hats they’ve never expected to uphold and they worked to make up this moving machine at the cost of their health, their families, their reputations and of course, their lives. Patients find themselves uprooted from their normal day to day and into this fight for their lives where they often contemplate existential matters and try their best to hold on to hope despite everything.Patients and medical personnel alike try to find comfort in one another during this trying time, making family of one another as they leave their real families behind for their own safety. All sense of purpose evaporates in these rooms where terrified patients and helpless doctors try to save the day. No one knows where this will go and yet they will all tell you, as if they’d previously practiced together, that they must be there for a reason. And they try their best to make it a worthwhile reason. These are the heroes of the pandemic.
Zahui Yvann
Côte d'Ivoire
Zahui Yvann
Côte d'Ivoire
Zahui Yvann is my name. A Visual Artist and Photographer from Ivory Coast, Abidjan. Started my art journey at the age of 15 in Ghana where I had my secondary and university education. Fascinated with art I studied Filmmaking and Multimedia Computer Graphics.
My artistic technique is a form of Afrofuturism. This is a way for me to express my African identity through my artworks and also to draw the attention of this generation to the realities they face.
The Memory Of The Nomad
To be a nomad is to be free. To be a nomad is to recenter the important things in our lives. During our journey on earth, we have good and bad moments we want to remember. The thin line that holds us together is our Memory. Which means we can all Identify ourselves as Nomads.
The Memory Of The Nomad
To be a nomad is to be free. To be a nomad is to recenter the important things in our lives. During our journey on earth, we have good and bad moments we want to remember. The thin line that holds us together is our Memory. Which means we can all Identify ourselves as Nomads.