My work exhibited at Kyotographie ‘21: 4 of my photo and photo collage series: “The Faces of Abissa” (on the annual Festival of The N’zima people of Grand-Bassam) “the Queens of Babi (on @britney9816 and @babacoeurblanc, members of the Drag Queen and LGBTQ community of Abidjan), “Metamorphosis” (A photo collage self-portrait series on Breast cancer as a Black woman, originally created for @grain_projects) and “Me, First” (a series created for @lookingglassco on self care through sexuality and pleasure). All 4 series are exhibited under the title “Manifold”.
“Manifold,” signifies “many” or “marked by diversity or variety.” The title hints at the common theme running through all 4 series, which is to show the different ways in which black people can simply just be, how our identities are layered and deserve to be told as such. The layout of the exhibition, a layered circular structure in which people will be able to discover each photo series one by one, also fits perfectly with the title.
In addition to this exhibit, I have also created a separate new 10 image collage series entitled “Ee don tehm foh eat” (“It’s Time to Eat” in Krio, one of our Sierra Leonean dialects), which was a remote collaboration with the local community in the Demachi Masugata Shopping Arcade in Kyoto, a transcultural photo collage project on on the commonalities in African and Japanese culture.
Grain Photo Hub granted me a bursary to create a new series. For this opportunity I created a series of self-portraits as photo collages that are about self-identity and intimacy. My photo collage series on the topic of loss and grief is deeply personal: They are about the challenges that remain post cancer treatment during lockdown, and revolve around themes of femininity, sexuality and body ownership as a black woman and cancer survivor. Through my “Metamorphosis” series, I explore the death and rebirth I experienced through loss of my pre-cancer life, and fertility.
“C’est pas Fini” (It’s Not Over) is my new series for the TPA/Royal Photographic Society Environmental Awareness Bursary on an issue impacting the historic town of Grand-Bassam, Côte d’Ivoire. Bassam is an old French-colonial seaside town which was once the nation’s capital, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, however its infrastructures are not maintained.
Grand-Bassam’s unprecedented extreme 2019 flooding affected the community greatly, and the threat of a return to this level of water rise is something that haunts many Bassam living people. This year, I saw the water was starting to rise as I left in mid-September, the community hastily building barriers in the hope of keeping it at bay. Coastal erosion, caused by climate change, is a growing problem for West African nations. The more I took photographs and heard people’s stories, the same recurrent themes kept coming up: Lack of immediate aid during the flooding, the resilience of the people of Grand-Bassam and how they struggled to get back on their feet, and currently still try to build preventative methods in anticipation of another devastating flooding. Lastly, the pain they still carry in regards to their precious damaged property, loss of income, and the way they were left to fend for their own.
Since November 2019, a project named the PABC project, (the Cocody Bay and Ebrié Lagoon Safeguarding and Enhancement Project, executed by a company called the SGTM (Société Générale des Travaux du Maroc), has started work on the Comoé river and its sandbanks. The project aims to improve the renewal of the waters of the Ebrié lagoon by promoting the exchange between the sea and the lagoon, as well as evacuate the water and the inputs of the Comoé river towards the sea during floods.
However, the people impacted by these changes will be Bassam habitants used to living by the river, and continually so with the likely increase in value in the bay area, with its untouched natural reserves that could accommodate expensive seaside and tourist complexes. The work on the sand banks will also need to be maintained every 2 years as they are still subject to coastal erosion.
My series “The Queens of Babi”, on the drag community of Abidjan, now live on the Queer Festival Heidelberg website and to be exhibited in the streets of Heidelberg. I shot Kesse Ane Assande Elvis Presley, or simply coined as "Britney Spears" by her friends, along with Mohamed, aka “Baba” for a series which was created after meeting and talking with the members of Abidjan's drag community, and discussing how to highlight their talent and creative passions.
This is a story on the many facets of the word Latitude: More than a system for mapping the world, latitude also means "freedom of action or choice." Atmos Magazine asked me to capture themeaning of Latitude in my culture, through the lens of fashion. In keeping with the magazine’s mission, we were conscious of our environmental impact: only local models & designers, materials and fabrics were used, with an eco-responsible vision. Côte d'Ivoire's fascinating architecture always evokes a feeling of nostalgia for the past. One of those places in particuliar is Grand-Bassam, the old French-colonial seaside town which was once the nation’s capital, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is filled with arresting 19th and 20th-century architectural ruins; It embodies, on the one hand, colonial architecture and town planning, based on the principles of functionalism and adaptations to climatic conditions, and, on the other hand, a community of the N’zima people, which demonstrates the permanency of indigenous cultures, despite serious environmental issues such as coastal erosion. For this shoot, I really wanted to capture this atmosphere of traditional and modern African culture which reigns heavily throughout Bassam, now at risk of erasure.
A series entitled “amorphophallus aphyllus”, (named after the phallic Hermaphrodite African plant), photographed for The Nice Magazine. This is a series on African Masculinity and Feminity, their various interchangeable facets and the intricate “masks” and layers we hold on to.
Carla and Anouar for a new series from my personal work, entitled: “Longing and Belonging”. The following photos were inspired from the close ties that create a bond, gender similarities, and the human desire in sharing intimacy.
A Photography and Illustration Portrait Project
Launched in Toronto in March 2014 by Ngadi Smart, The EyeMuse Project aims to encapsulate the true identity of a city through its inhabitants. So far the project has stretched as far as Toronto (Canada), London (U.K) and as of April 2016, Abidjan (Ivory Coast). It is a project that uses Photography and Illustration to capture a variety of its subjects' cultures, style, tastes and lifestyles in a bid to explore how these combining factors contribute to the genuine make-up of a location. To do this each subject is photographed at the place they are most familiar and comfortable with, and which reflects all these previously mentioned factors; their home. These are then posted according to their location in the city with an accompanying Illustration, on the official website. In July 2014, a special side feature for the project was launched, entitled "EyeMuse: Us", which is a more intimate showcase into how the subjects' personal style, tastes, and lifestyles merge when a in a partnership.