Photographers / Africa Inside
Africa Inside
Ricardo Rengel
Ricardo Rengel
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Rangel photographs street scenes, landscapes, the everyday activities of individuals, and night scenes in the cafes and restaurants in Mozambique. His work testifies to his great involvement with the people of Mozambique's multi-cultural society. The photographs are pervaded by compassion for those portrayed and fury at injustices. Many of his photographs were banned from publication by colonial censors, and many of his negatives were destroyed by servants of the previous government. Rangel worked some time for various newspapers. In 1970, together with four other journalists, he established the illustrated weekly magazine Tempo. This was the first colour magazine in Mozambique. In 1981 he became director of the weekly Domingo, and three years later he was asked to set up the Centro de Formaçao Fotográfica in Maputo, a school for photography. He remains its director down to the present day. Since 1983 Rangel has been showing in European galleries and various European and African museums.
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Rangel photographs street scenes, landscapes, the everyday activities of individuals, and night scenes in the cafes and restaurants in Mozambique. His work testifies to his great involvement with the people of Mozambique's multi-cultural society. The photographs are pervaded by compassion for those portrayed and fury at injustices. Many of his photographs were banned from publication by colonial censors, and many of his negatives were destroyed by servants of the previous government.
Rangel worked some time for various newspapers. In 1970, together with four other journalists, he established the illustrated weekly magazine Tempo. This was the first colour magazine in Mozambique. In 1981 he became director of the weekly Domingo, and three years later he was asked to set up the Centro de Formaçao Fotográfica in Maputo, a school for photography. He remains its director down to the present day.
Since 1983 Rangel has been showing in European galleries and various European and African museums.
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Dorris Haron Kasco
Dorris Haron Kasco
LES FOUS D'ABIDJAN
Kasco photographed the mentally ill in Abidjan. He first visited them without his camera and tried to learn to understand their way of living and manner of thinking. In Africa people often think that these people are possessed by a demon or a deity, and they are even driven out of some villages. They then travel to the city, where they are abandoned to their fate. Kasco photographed them in the gutter, sleeping on the street, screaming and walking around naked. Some knew that they were being photographed and screamed at the photographer, or looked absently into the camera. Others were lost in their own world and appear to be conscious of nothing. The photographs are confrontational; it is as if one has stepped into the world of these people. Kasco is interested in the solidarity found in everyday life in Africa, and simply asks if one can speak of such solidarity when there are people wandering the street who, in other parts of the world, would receive care.
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LES FOUS D'ABIDJAN
Kasco photographed the mentally ill in Abidjan. He first visited them without his camera and tried to learn to understand their way of living and manner of thinking. In Africa people often think that these people are possessed by a demon or a deity, and they are even driven out of some villages. They then travel to the city, where they are abandoned to their fate. Kasco photographed them in the gutter, sleeping on the street, screaming and walking around naked. Some knew that they were being photographed and screamed at the photographer, or looked absently into the camera. Others were lost in their own world and appear to be conscious of nothing. The photographs are confrontational; it is as if one has stepped into the world of these people. Kasco is interested in the solidarity found in everyday life in Africa, and simply asks if one can speak of such solidarity when there are people wandering the street who, in other parts of the world, would receive care.
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LES FOUS D'ABIDJAN
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LES FOUS D'ABIDJAN
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LES FOUS D'ABIDJAN
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LES FOUS D'ABIDJAN
Alioune Bâ
Alioune Bâ
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Hands and feet are central to the work by Bâ (b. Mali, 1959). He is of the opinion that body parts are distinctive for the life of each individual: for instance, they say something about the work that he or she does. There is a great difference between the feet of a gardener and those of a rich merchant. Bâ photographs details of everyday life in the Sahel: a close-up of a wrinkled old hand, the thumb and pointer of which hold prayer beads; a person sitting cross-legged, barefoot and with hands folded; a child's hand grasping a bowl; a close-up of a baby's hand; the soles of feet, painted with henna. With his work Bâ wants to give a positive picture of Africa, because television and newspapers in general only show the misery. Bâ works for the Musée National du Mali, where he is responsible for recording the collection photographically. In addition he often goes out on missions to small villages in order to record the last vestiges of the culture of Mali for future generations.
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Hands and feet are central to the work by Bâ (b. Mali, 1959). He is of the opinion that body parts are distinctive for the life of each individual: for instance, they say something about the work that he or she does. There is a great difference between the feet of a gardener and those of a rich merchant.
Bâ photographs details of everyday life in the Sahel: a close-up of a wrinkled old hand, the thumb and pointer of which hold prayer beads; a person sitting cross-legged, barefoot and with hands folded; a child's hand grasping a bowl; a close-up of a baby's hand; the soles of feet, painted with henna. With his work Bâ wants to give a positive picture of Africa, because television and newspapers in general only show the misery.
Bâ works for the Musée National du Mali, where he is responsible for recording the collection photographically. In addition he often goes out on missions to small villages in order to record the last vestiges of the culture of Mali for future generations.
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Amadou Traoré
Amadou Traoré
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Strong, raw and perplexing images of daily life. Snapshots that move past like a film. A diary from the heart of Africa. Traoré (b. Mali, 1948) rides around on his Vespa through the city recording the intimacy of families. With his camera he follows the everyday scenes in the lives of these people: a man and a woman sleeping in bed, a girl putting on make-up, a child undressing for bed. In addition he photographs the nights in Bamako: the bars and the people on the streets. Nothing is re-enacted. The photos must speak for themselves. In a country where reportage rules the roost, Traoré represents a new form of expression, a personal, almost musical way of photographing.
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Strong, raw and perplexing images of daily life. Snapshots that move past like a film. A diary from the heart of Africa. Traoré (b. Mali, 1948) rides around on his Vespa through the city recording the intimacy of families. With his camera he follows the everyday scenes in the lives of these people: a man and a woman sleeping in bed, a girl putting on make-up, a child undressing for bed. In addition he photographs the nights in Bamako: the bars and the people on the streets. Nothing is re-enacted. The photos must speak for themselves. In a country where reportage rules the roost, Traoré represents a new form of expression, a personal, almost musical way of photographing.
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Moussa Sakho
Moussa Sakho
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The first photographic studios in Africa opened in the early 1930s. They made family portraits, and photographed important celebrations. Such photos had a special place in people's homes. Considerable attention was given to their presentation. People went to frame makers for the frames, and the framed photographs were displayed in a setting of curtains, flowers and cushions.Sakho wants to reach back to the roots of African photography. He makes portrait photographs and uses found photographs from the 1920s and '30s. Around them he creates collages with all kinds of found materials and objects, including wood, metal, food tins and beer cans. He seeks to unite photography, painting and sculpture with one another.
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The first photographic studios in Africa opened in the early 1930s. They made family portraits, and photographed important celebrations. Such photos had a special place in people's homes. Considerable attention was given to their presentation. People went to frame makers for the frames, and the framed photographs were displayed in a setting of curtains, flowers and cushions.
Sakho wants to reach back to the roots of African photography. He makes portrait photographs and uses found photographs from the 1920s and '30s. Around them he creates collages with all kinds of found materials and objects, including wood, metal, food tins and beer cans. He seeks to unite photography, painting and sculpture with one another.
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Philip Kwame Apagya
Philip Kwame Apagya
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n the field of photography, the Ghanaians have a long tradition of using painted backdrops. These are large canvasses which are used as backgrounds for photographs. They could be painted with draped curtains, classic columns and stairways. In the 1940s art photographers broke with these traditional images and designed alternatives which fit better with the taste of their public. They painted the backdrops with all sorts of aspects of the modernisation of Ghana: themes from urban life, dreamy images of houses, parks and airports, which symbolized modern life. They also painted interiors in which everything could be found which the person posing in front of them fantasized having. Apagya too makes use of such backdrops, painted in bright colours. He places people into this set, as though they are taking something out of the refrigerator, watching the television, or wandering through Manhattan. In this way he achieves lively studio portraits. He designs the backdrops himself and has them produced by a professional advertising artist.
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n the field of photography, the Ghanaians have a long tradition of using painted backdrops. These are large canvasses which are used as backgrounds for photographs. They could be painted with draped curtains, classic columns and stairways. In the 1940s art photographers broke with these traditional images and designed alternatives which fit better with the taste of their public. They painted the backdrops with all sorts of aspects of the modernisation of Ghana: themes from urban life, dreamy images of houses, parks and airports, which symbolized modern life. They also painted interiors in which everything could be found which the person posing in front of them fantasized having. Apagya too makes use of such backdrops, painted in bright colours. He places people into this set, as though they are taking something out of the refrigerator, watching the television, or wandering through Manhattan. In this way he achieves lively studio portraits. He designs the backdrops himself and has them produced by a professional advertising artist.
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Raymond Barthes
Raymond Barthes
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Barthes makes polaroids of the island of Réunion, the French overseas department where he has lived since 1980. The photographs are colourful and of varying nature. He records the mystery of the world around him and transforms the exotic into fantasy by working over the photographs with acrylic paint, pen and other materials that he has available. The number of professional and itinerant photographers on Réunion rose when the island became an administrative department of France. In the 1960s there were studios and photo stores present in almost every city. A new generation of press photographers appeared in the 1970s. Creative photography was practised by talented amateur photographers and shown in various exhibitions.The 1980s and '90s were characterized by an explosion in cultural and artistic activity. Collections were assembled by institutions and agencies, including the Departmental Archives, for which Barthes has been the official photographer since 1980.
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Barthes makes polaroids of the island of Réunion, the French overseas department where he has lived since 1980. The photographs are colourful and of varying nature. He records the mystery of the world around him and transforms the exotic into fantasy by working over the photographs with acrylic paint, pen and other materials that he has available. The number of professional and itinerant photographers on Réunion rose when the island became an administrative department of France. In the 1960s there were studios and photo stores present in almost every city. A new generation of press photographers appeared in the 1970s. Creative photography was practised by talented amateur photographers and shown in various exhibitions.
The 1980s and '90s were characterized by an explosion in cultural and artistic activity. Collections were assembled by institutions and agencies, including the Departmental Archives, for which Barthes has been the official photographer since 1980.
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Pierrot Men
Pierrot Men
MADAGASCAR
With the disappearance of French censorship on Madagascar an unprecedented freedom arose on the island for photographers. Many of them, including Men (b. Madagascar, 1954), left their studio and began making engaged work in which the reality of the society on the island was stripped bare. Men developed into a man of contrasts. Strong contrasts between black and white are characteristic of his work. He transforms parts of the everyday models he photographs into poetic visual statements. Men is presently owner of three photo studios in Fianarantsoa. Since 1985 his work has been included in all sorts of exhibitions around the world. In 1994 he won the Mother Jones Award. Together with the photographer John Lieberberg he produced a large-scale reportage on the southwest of Madagascar. In 1994, together with photographer Bernard Descamps, he also published his first book, Gens de Tana. He began an extensive reportage on the village of Saotanana in 1997.
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MADAGASCAR
With the disappearance of French censorship on Madagascar an unprecedented freedom arose on the island for photographers. Many of them, including Men (b. Madagascar, 1954), left their studio and began making engaged work in which the reality of the society on the island was stripped bare. Men developed into a man of contrasts. Strong contrasts between black and white are characteristic of his work. He transforms parts of the everyday models he photographs into poetic visual statements.
Men is presently owner of three photo studios in Fianarantsoa. Since 1985 his work has been included in all sorts of exhibitions around the world. In 1994 he won the Mother Jones Award. Together with the photographer John Lieberberg he produced a large-scale reportage on the southwest of Madagascar. In 1994, together with photographer Bernard Descamps, he also published his first book, Gens de Tana. He began an extensive reportage on the village of Saotanana in 1997.
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MADAGASCAR
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MADAGASCAR
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