Tag Archives: Photography

Creating familiarity with portraits

by jrdijkstra Posted on May 4, 2015

African photography is on the rise. Following decades of photographic misrepresentation by observers from outside the continent, African photographers are now showing the world what they see through their lens. This is Africa spotlights them in a series of interviews.

“My aim as a photographer is to use my portrayals to re-image the African continent by show showcasing the continent in a more positive light, laying more emphasis on the positive. I focus on our African identity in all it’s diversity and the aesthetics of been African in the 21st century.” Nigerian photographer Jumoke Sanwo knows what she wants to show her audience. As a graduate of English Studies from the Obafemi Awolowo University in her home country Jumoke also knows how to communicate this to the outside, a power that she uses with great success. Her work has been exhibited far and wide, from New York, Brussels and Dubai to Lagos, Sudan, Addis Ababa, Benin, Chad and Ghana. “My work addresses aesthetic concerns as well as concerns on identity, which fosters the discourse on re-imaging the African continent”, she explains. “I will continue to push the envelope with my unique take on the lifestyle of Africans with projects that celebrate the rich cultural diversity within the continent.”

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Unbiased

Jumoke wants to address social issues that in her opinion ‘ravage the continent’ with her imagery. Her view on the continent is what sets her apart, she believes, and her images are proof of that. “My portraits are quite intimate in a way that you are able to have a glimpse into the soul of my subjects.  I never shoot a subject until that window is open. The feel to my images is that of familiarity. For you the viewer has got to get the feeling to know the subject just by simply looking at the image.” What motivates her is the simple fact that she thinks these stories need to be told. Told by Africans. By doing so she wants to shed more light on her and her fellow Africans lifestyle. “For too long we’ve been subjected to objectification, almost to a point of spectacle. I feel that in the midst of all that are people living their day by day lives, doing normal things. They’re just surviving and going on; that’s what I want to show through my lens. African as a whole is a fascinating place for photographers, but most outsiders just come here to search for pictorials that illustrate the ideas they already have. I therefore focus on sharing stories without an agenda, unbiased. The focus is on my subject, not on me as a photographer. I simply witness the persons’ story and capture it.”

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Black & White Project

Though Jumoke started off as a writer, she realized along the lines that words where not sufficient enough to express her artistic flair. Photography turned out to be the perfect tool as an extension to her views. She became a member of The X-perspective, Black Female Photographers Association, American Photography Association and Invisible Borders Trans-African Photography group to share her experiences with others and a broader audience. Like many other photographers in those association she wants to contribute to the discourse to consciously document stories that challenge the existing notions about a subject. “Last year I came up with an idea called the ‘Black and White Project’, to be presented in two parts. The first was the ‘Retrospective’ project to create an archival image bank. I believe we have a wealth of photographic history in private collections currently. The idea is to create a central body to digitally archive these images. The second part of the project is called the ‘Perspective’ and the idea is to consciously document ongoing occurrences pertaining to our lifestyle in the current day. I am still at the stage of fine-tuning the idea, but hope to be able to carry it out some day.”

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Artistic

In order to give a truthful image of her home country Nigeria she uses her native knowledge of the environment. Interacting with the space in a way that reveals a sensibility and understanding she tries to capture the story from the perspective of an interpreter, simply to share the stories from her subject’s perspective. It’s not always easy to do some in a city like Lagos, she admits. “It’s very challenging to survive as an artist here with the lack of an enabling environment for anything artistic. We see the future in ways how we can generate innovative ideas that can sharpen growth and development, but the government doesn’t understand this and therefore doesn’t support it. There is a rise in popularity of photography in Nigeria, but more in a commercial aspect. I don’t think we need more magazine type portrayals though, because this doesn’t add real value to the art of photography. Unfortunately the artistic practice is not lucrative enough for investments or support here.”

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Everyday Africa celebrates third anniversary

by jrdijkstra Posted on May 2, 2015

Last month marked the third anniversary of the Everyday Africa project. Featuring photographers living and working in Africa, finding the extreme not nearly as prevalent as the familiar, the everyday. Started by Austin Merrill and Peter DiCampo with over a dozen photographers, they keep on adding talent and expanding. We asked the latter about the ins-and-outs of African photography on social media.

“We want to change people’s opinions. Our goal is to  round out the view of the African continent by experimenting with ‘the stream’ as a narrative device. New platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr allow us to provide a constant flow of daily life images. It is a strange balance that we are still exploring. We can’t pretend to be showing all walks of life, but we try to encompass as much as possible: city and village, many countries and regions, rich and poor, you name it. It serves as a reminder that Africa is more than headlines, positive or negative. There are people going through their life, whatever that life is. It is a well-rounded view to remind us of a common humanity.”

Casual

Three years ago Peter shot the first image of the Everyday Africa project. Coming from Massachusetts in the United States, he studied photojournalism while attending Boston University. His introduction to subsaharan Africa was to live in rural Ghana as a Peace Corps Volunteer for two years. He then went back to photograph on a freelance basis until in March 2012 he and Austin Merrill were traveling in Ivory Coast working on a story about that country’s post-conflict situation. “Austin has lived several years in Ivory Coast at different points in his life, and the same is true for me of Ghana. So even as we covered serious issues we started casually photographing the moments we stumbled upon in between our reporting. These felt more familiar to us, and in truth, it was a relief to be able to capture moments that were outside the pre-conceived narrative we had already set for ourselves. Even as Austin and I reported a story we felt the world should know about, we found that we could use the casual nature of phone photography and the immediacy social media to fill in an important gap of coverage: the normal.”

Normal

Once they’ve started, Peter and Austin had no idea how large Everyday Africa would grow, and how fast. They never planned for the popularity, but now they do learn a lot from the comments they receive on their online media outlets. “People occasionally complain that we show too much of rural Africa, that ‘everyday’ Africa should be focused on the modern stories, the suit-and-tie Africa, business and technology. We certainly do that, but I feel strongly that our message shouldn’t be limited to presenting a version of Africa that will appear ‘normal’ to Americans or Europeans. The idea is not to say that ‘normal’ means one thing; it is instead to say that there are many versions of normalcy.” They’ve got contributors living all over the continent and the regular ones have the login information for the feed. They understand the project, so don’t need a lot of direction. Their images tend to be a back and forth between specific projects they are working on, or images shot in between as they travel and work. “Just last month we added four new African photographers to our roster, from Egypt, Tanzania, South Africa, and DRC.”

Great Story

Giving a truthful image of the continent is of course a very slippery slope. “Truth is a tough word!”, Peter says. According to him the viewer needs to step back and take a broader look; the truth in every aspect of life. Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe said: ‘We must hear all the stories and by hearing all the stories we will find in fact points of contact and communication, and the world story, the Great Story, will have a chance to develop.’ With Everyday Africa they want to hold on to this, even while knowing it’s an impossible task, trying to tell all the stories, or at least as many as they can with the greatest variety. “Our contributors have enough experience in Africa to understand the importance of photographing many aspects of life on the continent. Often, the photographers ‘flying in’ mimic the images that came before them and don’t photograph what they actually see. This is very dangerous and something we definitely try to prevent.”

Gatekeeper

Of course Peter realizes that his role in Everyday Africa has put him in the position of being yet one more white American male in the media. But the goal is not for Austin and him to have a strong editorial voice. It’s to get a large group of consistent contributors from various backgrounds and then be as hands-off as possible. “We unexpectedly created a platform with a large audience and now we realize there are people who are much more qualified to contribute to it than we are. We’ll just keep trying to build out other aspects of it in the background. There is more local photography than ever before, mobile phone and otherwise. Of course, part of the beauty of social media is that this imagery is viewable without a gatekeeper. Africans don’t have to impress a newspaper to reach a global audience, they can establish a large online following instead. And many are.”

Conceptual

Casual imagery of Africa is often hard to come by. While the contributors of Everyday Africa have chosen to interpret ‘everyday’ in different ways, for Peter it’s the purest form. The idea of photographing everything. It’s accessible. “For a while, mobile phone photography was deemed unserious by professional photographers because it was a camera used to photograph family and friends; for me, this casualness put to good use is precisely what makes my camera phone a great tool”, says Peter. “I suppose the most interesting development in African photography to came with it, from my perspective, is to watch the subjects evolve from a more literal sensibility to a more conceptual one.”

Future

Peter has many goals ahead of him, all related to changing perceptions of the continent. “We’re editing our work into a book that we hope to publish soon and we’ve developed an education curriculum. Next to that we’re also hoping to have our first large group reporting project; many of the Everyday Africa photographers shooting stories related to a specific theme. There is no end in site yet for our Everyday Africa project.”

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Capturing the change

by jrdijkstra Posted on April 22, 2015

African photography is on the rise. Following decades of photographic misrepresentation by observers from outside the continent, African photographers are now showing the world what they see through their lens. This is Africa spotlights them in a series of interviews. 

She believes in the reality of existence and want to capture that story. Seeking to explore the world and herself, document everything around her. That is what Ghanaian photographer Teresa Meka does. “The changing times, the joys, the pain, the highs and lows”, she explains, “I capture it all. I’m a detail-oriented person driven by the philosophy that photography, thus the photographer, is a tool of change, a tool to inform and question.” For her photography is a way of showing people the little things that we ignore everyday, the beauty that’s all around us, including the issues that affect us. “It’s an agent of change and discovery, it helps change stereotype about the continent and its people one image at a time. I seek to document my relationship with the society and how that evolves with time.”

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Uncle

Teresa’s love story for photography began with her uncle’s camera at the age of ten. “He lived abroad and every time her came over he let me use his camera”, she says. It fascinated her, but didn’t imagine herself a photographer. After high school however it was clear for her: she needed to do something with a camera. “I got a job at a small photo studio in Accra and there I got to work with cameras every day. Meeting so many photographers also inspired me. Eventually my uncle paid me a course in South Africa about the fundamentals of photography and from there I just started photographing everything I saw.” Apart from that basic training, Teresa is completely self taught. To earn a living she does commercial photography: weddings, funerals and the like. But it’s her personal projects in which she can show the Africa through her own eyes.

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Journey

“Time is going so fast – everything is constantly changing”, Teresa says. “There is always something happening and I feel the urge to document that. I see it as a preservation of memory. Therefore I consider myself as a documentary photographer; I want to draw attention to aspects of life that people missed out on.” Teresa admits that she is always capturing her journey, especially because there is always a part of her in the image. With that she also shows that she is part of the society she lives in; part of the bigger picture. “Before I went out with any specific idea though, now I work more and more within a concept. I have goal with what I’m photographing now and that requires some research. It’s a constant learning curve for me.” She sees that photography is becoming more and more popular in Ghana, especially on the commercial side, but rather looks to Nigeria or South Africa for inspiration. “The art photography scene is much bigger there. There are a lot of photographers from other countries that inspire me, that’s why I participated in the Invisible Borders project as well.”

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Subjective

While photographing with the goal to educate her audience, Teresa also learns a lesson herself. Whether it be cultural, economical or political aspects, she always discovers something new that changes her opinion or view. “During the ‘Bed’ series for example, I learned that in Sudan beds are part of the furniture. They’re not just used for sleeping like in Ghana, but to sit, eat and chill on. It’s those aspects that can change your view and what I try to show.” She does admit that what she photographs is just what she sees, a very subjective vision. Yet it’s what she sees through her lens and not what sells, tells a story already told or keeps stereotypes alive. Her work is what she can relate to, without an agenda. “Ghana is not like this or like that, Ghana is what I see”, Teresa explains. “I don’t have a quest per se, but do want to let my audience into my world. It’s what they do with it afterwards that matters, but that’s all up to them.”

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A place of dreams, hope and resilience

by jrdijkstra Posted on April 10, 2015

African photography is on the rise. Following decades of photographic misrepresentation by observers from outside the continent, African photographers are now showing the world what they see through their lens. This is Africa spotlights them in a series of interviews.

Having recently worked in Kenya -his home country-, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Angola, Burundi, Congo (Brazzaville) and South Africa, it’s fair to say that photographer Felix Masi  is a good example of a professional that knows what’s going on in his continent. He is an award winning independent photojournalist who has seen the challenges and big changes of his country and continent; a child born in poverty who faced his fears and decided to point his camera towards them. “I’m confronting the social ills that has been the face of this continent only known for it’s tragedies”, Felix explains. Through my photography I try to divert from what in commonly known in foreign eyes as the 3Ds: death, disease and despair.  Africa is so different than that.”

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Tourists

Felix understands that telling an unbiased and truthful story is by no means easy, but he accepts that challenge gratefully. “Most of the stories about our continent have been told by foreigners; first journalists flying in for a news story and nowadays more and more by tourists who have no idea or understanding of Africa and it’s country’s they transit through while on vacation. The problem is that they all have a blog, social media and smartphone for instant updates – which is fine – but the problem is that their stories are not a true representation of reality and are mostly one sided. Yet they get send into the world and judged by others who know even less.”

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Big steps

His international experience has enabled Felix to stand up and walk tall and tell the African tale from a personal point of view, as he holds his motherland close to my heart. Many countries have a fast growing economy and are booming, a subject he likes to capture and emphasize. “Countries like Kenya and Nigeria are ahead when it comes to technological advances and Nairobi and Lagos count as hubs for international photography. We’re making big steps forward, but also still have a long way to go. That’s why it’s important to photograph a ‘New Africa’ and instead of going to the slums in those cities focus on the banking, IT and other progressive businesses. Positive stories, though it’s easier to sell a negative images. That is the part which needs to change and what I’m fighting for with my photography.”

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Hardship

The African story can perfectly be told by Africans themselves according to Felix. Those who have lived to see the change of their continent and would wish to see the same on every screen, in every paper and every magazine. “It’s time we told our own tale, but I have to admit that photographing in some African countries isn’t easy. In Angela or the DRC for example – where I currently live – it can be a painstakingly exercise. People are paranoid for cameras because of memories from old regimes; think you portray the wrong thing and want to harm them. That’s one of the reasons it’s also hard to show the change and hope in photography there. And then I’m not even talking about areas of north-east Africa where rebels are in power and it’s practically impossible to photograph without risking your life. However, those untold stories are just as important and can give a balanced view of the continent.

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Hope

Felix recently was surprised when an NGO asked him to shoot a positive series about his home country, but it’s the way forward he says. “All these success stories are due to modern technology which has ignited the (mostly) young and old in living the African dream and confronting the cliches painted by foreign media.” Having taken thousands of images and traveling all over the world throughout his freelance career Felix sees the African continent as a cradle of hope for humankind. “The awakening continent where all it’s people, of all shapes and sizes will rise up and be respected wherever they go because they are united and carry the pride of being the success story of the soil”, he says. “I’m a strong believer in the growth of our continent and I’m not turning back. I want to be part of this success story. Through my lens I have seen and captured amazing dreams, hope and resilience. Africa is making huge leaps forward, so if you thought Africa was a poor place: think again.”

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South Africa through personal experiences

by jrdijkstra Posted on February 18, 2015

African photography is on the rise. Following decades of photographic misrepresentation by observers from outside the continent, African photographers are now showing the world what they see through their lens. This is Africa spotlights them in a series of interviews.

“It can be considered that as a South African growing up within a changing political and social environment these transitional facets are influential. Upbringing, tradition, religion and family can all play a role in ones own identity and conscience when exploring various societal dynamics through photography”, Ilan Godfrey says. The photographer from Johannesburg is born is 1980 and lives in Cape Town at the moment, but most of his photographic series still evolve around his hometown. His focus is mainly on subjects transpired out of personal experiences and life events, like ‘Louis Botha Avenue’ and ‘Living With Crime’.

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Cross section

“It was on initiation of these projects that social, economical, geographical and historical themes began to surface”, he explains. “They bring to the fore various elements that engage with South Africa on multiple levels and that shift in relation to the narratives I am compiling. With most of my personal work I strive to reveal a more contemplative and honest explorations of life within the seams.” Ilan strives to focus on a cross section of South Africa, all classes, races, religions and cultures. “So I am ultimately bringing together all South Africans through new avenues of story telling where possible.”

Living With Crime

Living With Crime

‘Living With Crime’

The untold stories that don’t make the headlines, those deserve supplementary exploration and expansion according to Ilan. Drawing together various layers that reveal the good and the bad sides of South Africa. “My brush strokes are broad and tangential incorporating characteristics of our changing society in one-way or another.” His first series, ‘Living With Crime’, reflects back to the decade of the 1980s; one of the most violent periods in South African history. “This period was characterized by the extensive use of force by the South African state and those opposing. By the 1990s, the term ‘culture of violence’ was frequently used to describe the conflict that shrouded South African society. The nature of this violence bled into all parts of public life, undermining the ethical, and social fabric of society.

“What the images in this series represent are various communities in South Africa that have been affected by crime, who have survived a horrible ordeal or have had to live with the loss of a loved one due to crime. And through my work they will have the opportunity to express their feelings of sadness and anger as they struggle to come to terms with the psychological and emotional impact of their loss and that much in their current structural situation remains unchanged for instance the architectural environment they live in, with the constant threat of recurring crime.”

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‘Louis Botha Avenue’

After this series Ilan was concerned with photographing Louis Botha Avenue, a major street in Johannesburg. Botha however believed in maintaining black traditions and in totally segregating black and white, except where black people were needed as workers. “In post-apartheid South Africa, divisions and historical facets are transforming within a new urban democracy. The council announced its intention to replace apartheid street names with names that reflect the country’s democracy, freedom and cultural diversity. This series can be seen as a time-line of change that represents the reconstruction of what is old into what is new. Reflected are the subtle and extreme changes that diversify and alienate me in a place I once knew and now try to understand. ‘Louis Botha Avenue’ reveals a chapter in my life as a youth but also a microcosm of Johannesburg as a city of extremes.”

Louis Botha Avenue

The mine

More recently Ilan focussed on South Africa’s demand for gold, diamonds, coal and platinum, that for more than a century has gone from strength to strength, often shifting in accordance with the political economy and the availability of foreign markets. Mineral exploitation by means of cheap and disposable labour has brought national economic growth, making the mining industry the largest industrial sector in South Africa. “The mine”, irrespective of the particular minerals extracted Ilan explains, “is central to understanding societal change across the country and evidently comparable to mining concerns around the world. This enabled me to channel my conception of ‘the mine’ into visual representations that gave agency to these forgotten communities. The countless stories of personal suffering are brought to the surface and the legacy of ‘the mine’ is revealed.”

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A second reading

by jrdijkstra Posted on February 11, 2015

African photography is on the rise. Following decades of photographic misrepresentation by observers from outside the continent, African photographers are now showing the world what they see through their lens. This is Africa spotlights them in a series of interviews.

“Prejudices motivate me”, says Joana Choumali. The photographer from Ivory Coast wants to change opinions of people who have a wrong view on the African continent in general and her home country in specific. “I cannot force a person to change his or her views, but I can take it to reflect, interact, draw conclusions by herself. I like the answers to my photographs to come from a person who sees my work. Living and working in the capital Abidjan, where she also studied at an art school and before worked as art director for an advertising agency, she is now fully focussed on photography. “It allows me to express myself, talk about my country, my generation and my continent ‘from the inside’. I often speak about identity because it is a subject close to my heart; it often comes to my mind.”

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Hââbré

Joana gets her inspiration from conversations, the news and life in general – the past, present and future. She likes to have a ‘second reading’ of what is happening around her. “How an event affects those around me, how to translate that into my work, ask questions, seek answers” she explains. Her latest photographic series ‘The Last Generation’ for example shows portraits of the ‘last generation’ of scarified people in Abidjan. The series questions identity in a contemporary Africa torn between its past and present. “In the Kô language of Burkina Faso the word Hââbré means both writing and scarification. Scarification is the practice of performing a superficial incision on human skin. This practice is disappearing due to pressure from religious and state authorities, changing urban practices and the introduction of clothing within tribes. Nowadays only the older people have scarifications. While conducting my research, the majority of images I could find were from the beginning of the 20th century, and only a few contemporary images. I also had trouble finding scarified people to photograph because of their rarity.”

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Immigrants

This series of portraits leads us to question the link between past and present, and how self-image shifts depending on environment. The sometimes conflicting opinions of our witnesses illustrate the complexity of African identity today in a contemporary Africa torn between its past and its future. This ‘last generation’ of people bearing the imprint of the past on their faces went from being the norm and having a high social value to being somewhat ‘excluded’. “They are the last witnesses of an Africa of a bygone era”, Joana says. It’s a prime example of her work being imbued with sensitivity and emotion.

The series might have been about immigrants from Burkina Faso, but there is certainly a link with Ivory Coast. “They lived in Abidjan for so long that they consider themselves as Abidjanese. But these scarifications kept telling them that they are from another place, another time.  My point was really to collect of the testimony of these persons who have left their village and who are settled in this city to work. Ivory Coast is a country of immigration, yet several people told me that they had been the target of bullying, mocking the fact of their scarring. These people had to integrate as they can to the Ivorian society and more specifically Abidjan which is recognized as being one of the largest African metropolises.”

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Expression

Even if the subject is delicate and can create discomfort around her , it does not stop Joana to keep on shooting. She works in Ivory coast as well as abroad and doesn’t questions herself about the location. “If I feel the need, I work wherever I can. I have no preference, it just depends on my subject.” She explains that more and more young Ivorians are interested in photography and the market therefore becomes more busy. “I think the first reason is a desire of expression, of recognition through this form of art. Next to that the internet allows young African photographers to access more information on photography and art in general. This definitely opens possibilities, but the access to professional equipment is still limited. Hopefully this will change in the future, to help more upcoming talent reach the audience they deserve.”

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Creating conversations

by jrdijkstra Posted on November 18, 2014

African photography is on the rise. Following decades of photographic misrepresentation by observers from outside the continent, African photographers are now showing the world what they see through their lens. This is Africa spotlights them in a series of interviews.

What do you do when you actually want to draw, but are not very good at it? You become a photographer. At least that’s what Ghanaian Michael Newlove-Mensah did. It felt like photography came natural to him, because he was fascinated about speaking without words since a young age. Keeping an open mind while working is very important to him, because he’s ‘always looking to help bring understanding to issues’. “I aim to tell a story from both sides, so all parties van appreciate it. Experiences and backgrounds normally dictate how we see things and react to them, but I try to look further, not influencing the stories but capturing them as they are.”

Portal life

Happy pains

Perception

When shooting people in their natural setting, Michael just snaps – everything has to happen spontaneous. According to the photographer we see a bit of ourselves in every frame, because they act like a mirror. “In this I try to capture the essence of the action. As long as it informs, educates and/or changes perceptions, I’m happy. Even better though is when the image actually confronts you and makes you think. In my perception every person is unique and I want to show that even though everybody shares certain similarities each person has their own tasks and their own ways of handling things. Yet we’re all affected by everything that happens around us; it’s that synergy that makes live so unique and interesting for me to capture.”

Purity

Hope, kindness and culture

Michael never suffers of a lack of stories to tell since there is always enough going on in Ghana. “The stories are always there”, he says, “I just tell the ones I’m drawn to for whatever reason.” He wants to present his country as it is; ‘a country of beauty, warmth and love’. “Filled with people full of hope, kindness and a very rich and diverse culture.” He does understand however that they also have their bad days and faults just like any other society. But according to Michael these aspects bring forth their strength. “You will know this if you have ever interacted with a Ghanaian”, he laughs. His agenda only beholds portraying Ghana as he sees it, hoping for an effect, a reaction or a conversation at best. In the future he hopes to show his work around the world, being able to draw parallels with stories from all these different parts of the globe. “Hopefully leading to conversations that can heal and create understanding.”

Envision

Friendly waters

High speed

Capturing so many different aspects of society requires Michael to be able to quickly adapt to any setting. He never knows where the story might take him. The most important thing for him is the story and like said before, there is no short supply of that. “We are in a very interesting time where information flows constantly at high speed and as photographers we have to jump in to that. For years a negative perception has been created of life in Africa and with all the technology that has become available over the past years we are able to change that perception. Things are getting clearer now and our photographs are the missing frames to a better view. The Ghanaians are here now, with our cameras.”

Attention

Dusty Silence

Improving

With that it also helps that the photography scene in Ghana is constantly improving according to Michael. Not only the photographers skill set and technical know-how, but also the understanding of more accomplished photographers by taking workshops and looking at others work. “We are fortunate to be home to some of the most legendary photographers with international exposure, like James Banor and Chris Hesse. They motivated a new generation of photographers like Nii Obodai who again hold the doors to upcoming artists like myself.” He sees the same happening in other African countries with people like Emeka Okereke. “All in all, there is a positively conscious movement that produce photographs that represent Africa in it’s own light and glory and it’s done by African photographic talents. That’s a very good thing.”

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The different side of Brazzaville

by jrdijkstra Posted on November 14, 2014

African photography is on the rise. Following decades of photographic misrepresentation by observers from outside the continent, African photographers are now showing the world what they see through their lens. This is Africa spotlights them in a series of interviews.

Before his dad wanted to give Baudouin Mouanda his Zenit camera, he first had to show good results in school. Apparently he did, because now the Congolese photographer is not only capturing the reality and hidden worlds of his society, but is also part of the photography collective Generation Elili. “We work to promote Congolese photography internationally”, Baudoin explains. “Our situation is not only difficult because of what is happening in our country, but also as photographers self as well. We need to support each other, hence the start of this collective.” Since 2003 they meet every last Friday of the month to discuss photography and show each other their work. Next to that they blog and organize photo walk through Brazzaville to introduce people in the street to their work. “We want to tell a broad audience what we do and show them a different side of their city. Last year we also organized a meeting with photographers from other African countries like Mali, Niger and Tunisia to get to know each other and exchange ideas. Now it’s actually time to organize an international photography event in Congo-Brazzaville.”

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Teaching

Baudoin, who won the Young Talent Award at Encounters of Africa Photography in Bamako in 2009, focusses mainly on political and social subjects with his photographers and has the strong urge to educate others. Not only other photographers, but also members of his local community and even an international audience. “I want others to understand the world we (Congolese) live in, including the problems we struggle with. But I do want to do this through good imagery. That’s the reason I don’t just go out and shoot on the street usually, but plan my shoots with models to express the feelings and situations I experience in daily life.” His first motivation however, is a person one: if an image isn’t good or interesting enough for him, Baudouin automatically considers it not good enough for his audience. “Yet when I’m content with it, I afterwards don’t care what others think about it. At least it’s good enough for me.”

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Baudouin_Mouanda_1 HIP HOP ET SOCIETE

Representing Brazzaville

According to Baudouin, who was also featured in Al Jazeera’s Artscape: The New African Photography other photographers sketch a wrong image of Africa as only being poor and war torn. With this he doesn’t only refer to foreign correspondents, but also his fellow countrymen. “It’s what sells and even though we need money to survive, it’s not the way I want to showcase my country. Together with the other photographer of Generation Elili we therefore try to represent Brazzaville differently. Suffering is everywhere – not only in Africa. Our task is to show the real image of our lives, knowing that we are here every day and know all the ins-and-outs. We – the Congolese – are the only ones who can show the audience a balanced picture.” Luckily Baudouin thinks that photography in Brazzaville is developing and growing. There is more room for their work and people are more interested in what they have to show. “We also go to schools to show our photography and open their eyes. A lot of young photographers have come up for the years and now flourish.”

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“They were actually surprised that it was a fellow African photographing them”

by jrdijkstra Posted on September 8, 2014

African photography is on the rise. Following decades of photographic misrepresentation by observers from outside the continent, African photographers are now showing the world what they see through their lens. This is Africa spotlights them in a series of interviews.

Somewhere in 2001, Andrew Eseibo was asked by a friend what he wanted as a gift. “A camera”, he replied. And so Eseibo (1978) got a camera and started to teach himself to be a photographer. Before he was never encouraged to follow his artistic dream, because growing up photography was not considered a profession in his home country of Nigeria. “But quickly I got stuck, because the once that did earn money with it, did so by doing commercial work; weddings, portraits and such. That didn’t really inspire me, so I started browsing the internet to get in touch with foreign photographers and look at photography books to get inspired.”

pool beting001

pool beting002

Nigeria on his mind

Born and living in Lagos, he started chronicling the rapid development of urban Nigeria as well as the country’s rich culture and heritage in Nigeria’s largest city Ibadan. Eseibo is primarily concerned with the lives of ordinary Africans, which shows in the subjects of his series. “I’m interested in simple things that happen around me. That’s why for a series like ‘Pool Betting’ I photographed the trend of football pool betting amongst older men, for ‘God is Alive’ I record religious spaces spread throughout the country to demonstrate how Nigerians express their own brand of praise and in ‘Nigeria on My Mind’ I bundle our cultural heritage, ethnic diversity and geographic beauty of my country”. Some of his other work includes capturing the bustling night life of Lagos and the associated bouncers, the appropriating of football in unconventional environments in his country and the story of Sunny Omini, an ex-football star turned missionary.

Living Positive

Living Positive

Heavy subjects

But there are also more serious subjects that capture Eseibo’s eye, like he shows with his series ‘Living Positive’: “I followed the black, female lesbian with HIV Thoko Ngubeni, who has to fight all kinds of discrimination and stigmatization. Rejected by her family and friend and at one point on the verge of death, she now managed to turn her life around. In an untitled, on-going portrait series I photograph resilient African gays to challenge the stereotypical representation of LGBTQ’s in African cultures.” After gaining international recognition over the past decade, Eseibo also started exploring new creative territories and integrating multimedia, like for his series ‘Barbara Encounter’ about a Zambian sex worker and ‘Living Queer African’, about a homosexuals student from Cameroon trying to make a new life for himself in France.

Untitled

Barbershops

His latest work however concerns a lighter subject again: barbershops. For ‘Pride’ he traveled through seven African countries, mainly focussing on cities, portraying urban aesthetics, hairstyles, nuances and the people that make all of that possible, barbers. “They were actually surprised that it was a fellow African portraying them, not an American or European. Everybody here knows about it, but nobody took the time to go deeper into the social function of them. It was the first time an African did it, but the barbers understood the importance of the project and said they would go the extra mile to support me.” Eseibo points out that many other photographers pass by on these subjects, especially if they come from ‘outside’ and don’t know what’s going on in the society. “Until now, the story of our continent has been told by non-Africans. For example, every time they come to Lagos, they want to go the slums. Why not expand?  Now that we have the tools and skills, I feel responsible to fill in that gap.”

alter gogo

alter gogo

World Cup

In 2010 Eseibo was selected for the Road to Twenty Ten project to form an all-African dream team of 16 journalists and photographers to provide alternative stories from the World Cup in South Africa. Before that he did a number of artistic residencies in Paris, London and South Korea. He is also the initiator and co-organizer of ‘My Eye, My World’, a participatory photography workshop for socially-excluded children in Nigeria, and a member of the Lagos-based photography collective BlackBox. His work has been exhibited all over the world and published in books, magazines and websites.

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POPCAP ‘14

by jrdijkstra Posted on September 7, 2014

With photographic series about scarified people in Abidjan, the legacy of mines in South Africa and the initiation ritual of the Ekonda pygmies in the Democratic Republic of Congo the winners of this years POPCAP award show the African continent from a new perspective. The prize for contemporary African photography was held for the third time and sees it’s submissions growing each year.

“The way we define it, the POPCAP prize is awarded to photographic portfolios, either produced in an African country or deal with a diaspore of an African country”, explains organizer Benjamin Füglister from piclet.org. “Otherwise how do you classify an ‘African photographer’?”, he asks himself. “We aim of course to discover talent that lives in Africa and until now we managed to do so, but the competition attracted 720 submissions from 88 countries this year – 24 of whom were from African countries.” Quite an increase compared to 140 submissions in 2012 and 360 in 2013, from just 57 countries. “We keep on growing and want to do so in a healthy and controllable way. Therefore we will operate in more languages than just English in the future and work together with libraries and social organizations to have photographers make use of their computers and internet to upload their work.”

Major international photograph exhibitions

The non-profit initiative aims to furthering engagement with the African continent within the photographic community and offers photographers the opportunity to receive international recognition and exposure to big-name personalities in the art world. According to Benjamin this is necessary in order to survive in the world of photography. “Therefore we want to link the winners to international events and introduce them to curators and museums. Their work will be exhibited at 7 major international photography exhibitions in Africa and Europe like an open air show in Basel, Switzerland, PhotoIreland Festival in Dublin, the Cape Town Month of Photography in South Africa, LagosPhoto Festival in Nigeria, Addis FotoFest in Ethiopia.” Next to that they also get a publication in the European Photography Magazine.

Jürg Schneider

With a price that could possible launch a career, the winners have to be chosen carefully. Therefore POPCAP has a panel of 24 internationally-sourced judges who choose the five best submissions, which must consist of a minimum of ten images, but not exceed 25. One of them is Jürg Schneider, historian from Basel, Switzerland and co-founder of the African Photography Initiative. “I think the organization thought is was a good idea to have a historian in the jury”, he laughs. “I can compare the photographs in a more vertical way, instead of horizontal. But in general I’m also just very interested in contemporary African photography, so that’s a good combination.” For him it was the series of Patrick Willocq that was especially interesting. ‘I am Walé Respect Me’ tells the story of the initiation ritual of the Ekonda pygmies in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Ekondas believe that the most important moment in the life of a woman is the birth of her first child. This series is a personal reflection of women in general and the Walé ritual specifically. “His work can be compared to ethnographic photography from a century ago, but in a contemporary way. The pygmies didn’t get pushed around by him, but they work together – that’s a big difference.” Regarding the work of Joana Choumali and Ilan Godfrey, Jürg is fascinated by the link between past and present on the African continent. “They manage to show the difference, the tension and the coming changes”, he explains. Benjamin agrees with him and says that the jury looks at the quality of the work on all fronts, as a whole. “For example the work of Joana Choumali; the subject might not be the most original one, but it’s technically good and she researches her own identity with it.”

Aida Muluneh

Another member of the jury, Aida Muluneh, artist and director of Addis FotoFest in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia agrees with Jürg when considering the work of this years photographers. “Overall, the submitting photographers had strong work. I was my second time as a jury member and the only critic I have is that I would have liked to see more submission from photographers from the continent itself. Because they come from a different cultural backgrounds they see their own community differently and that subsequently impacts their photography”, Aida says. POPCAP only had one submissions from Burkina Faso this year, while other countries – namely Nigeria and South Africa – were much better represented. According to Aida that’s too blame on the fact that there is a lack of adequate training that teaches African photographers to become part of the international photography market. “Photography in Africa is growing in the sense that new publications are coming out featuring work by photographers from the continent, while also various festivals are sprouting and new talents are being featured in the various galleries abroad. Yet as I mentioned, we don’t have adequate institutions that support photography education and without education we will continue to face the challenges of not having quality work that is competitive with the international photo scene.” Benjamin adds: “There are no art schools, courses or anything related to photography in most African countries. This needs to change, because without a market – or a very small one – there is no chance for these photographers to show their work to the outside world.” Also Jürg shares that opinion, stating that there might be more galleries, shows and curators promoting photography, but it’s still very marginal. “Photography is still not a collectable item for many Africans. How many art museums are there in Africa and do they focus on photography? The answer is no. I asked somebody from Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town if they thought the photography market was growing on the continent and he didn’t think so either. So we agreed; the market is in the west.” Therefore they all think POPCAP is of such importance, giving upcoming photographers concerned with the African continent a podium. “To build a big community around photography”, replies Benjamin.

Joana Choumali

One of the above mentioned winners, Joana Choumali (1974) from Ibidjan in Ivory Coast, is therefore very content being one of the winners of this years POPCAP. “It means a lot to me because it’s a good opportunity to get my work seen internationally, but above all it’s an honor. It has been a rewarding experience from an artistic and human point of view. Winning this price motivates me for the future and assures me in the idea that the track I have chosen is the right one.” In her winning series ‘Hââbré, The Last Generation, shot in 2013-2014, she presents portraits of the ‘last generation’ of scarified people in Abidjan. The series questions identity in a contemporary Africa torn between its past and present. “In the Kô language of Burkina Faso the word Hââbré means both writing and scarification. Scarification is the practice of performing a superficial incision on human skin. This practice is disappearing due to pressure from religious and state authorities, changing urban practices and the introduction of clothing within tribes. Nowadays only the older people have scarifications. While conducting my research, the majority of images I could find were from the beginning of the 20th century, and only a few contemporary images. I also had trouble finding scarified people to photograph because of their rarity.” She had the feeling this subjects speaks to everybody, even if it depicted from an African point of view. Joana considers it a universal subject and started the series to testify, not forget and ask questions about the contemporary African identity.

Ilan Godfrey

Another one of the winners, Ilan Godfrey (1980) from Cape Town, South Africa, also went looking for explanations to the struggle for identity in his own country, but approached this from a whole different perspective. With ‘Legacy of the Mine’ (2011–2013) he took a closer look at ‘the mine’ – irrespective of the particular minerals extracted – playing a central role in understanding societal change across South Africa. “This is comparable to mining concerns around the world”, he explains. “ “I wanted to bring the countless stories of personal suffering to the surface and reveal the legacy of ‘the mine’. For more than a century, South Africa’s demand for gold, diamonds, coal and platinum has gone from strength to strength, often shifting in accordance with the political economy and the availability of foreign markets. Mineral exploitation by means of cheap and disposable labour has brought national economic growth, making the mining industry the largest industrial sector in South Africa. I wanted to create a visual representations that gave agency to these forgotten communities working around these mines and display public health crises within local communities unequipped to cope with the burden of air, land and water pollution, focussing on the disruptive influence of historical labour exploitation impacting on familial structures and cultural positioning.”

Subjects

“We’re not looking for images of violence and poverty, because that image has been shown enough already. We’re not on a mission, but do want to show our audience that Africa has a different side. Yet we’re also not looking for documentary photography per se, even though three of the projects that won fit in that category, but we’re definitely not looking for art photography”, explains Benjamin. “It’s not even possible to determine a specific style from a country. We had a few projects about AIDS, about homosexuality and gender issues, but the rest was concerning other subjects.”

Like the series of Belgium-Congolese photographer Léonard Pongo (1988), titled ‘The Uncanny’ (2011–2013). He was surprised to be selected and actually won, especially because of the size of the jury who has to reach a unanimous decision. “It didn’t think it would fit within their scope, but apparently it did”, he laughs. “It’s a documentary project that has been conducted in Democratic Republic of Congo since the political elections held in Autumn 2011. I aim to show the collateral impact on the daily life instead of the direct hits. It’s been carried out by accompanying family members, political personalities, religious leaders and local TV in order to document the events that rhythm the lives of the country‘s inhabitants and try to understand Congolese society and recover part of my own identity. My need to see my country from a different point of view than the so often depicted crises, combined with the openness of people to share their most intimate moments with me and my willingness to be accepted as part of their lives, allowed me to depict my country intimately and subjectively, not trying to deliver a truth, but striving to understand people‘s realities and to reconstruct my own.”

Photographic representation

“The winners get a public through POPCAP, which is perhaps not a necessity, but it’s an advantage for all parties involved. Also for the viewer, because they see an Africa that is way more happy, more real”, says Jürg. “For a very long time there has been an unbalanced view of the African continent, today – and with the help of this prize – that view gets more balanced and African photographers take their representation in their own hands”

“There is no photographic consciousness on the continent yet, that is something to be developed over the next two decades. That will lead to a better visual representation of Africa.”, ends Benjamin. Aida: “Photography is full of limitless possibilities and as you know image is power. We have to be able to represent our stories to create a balance on what is already out there which at times doesn’t offer the full picture of the complexities of Africa.”

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