In December 1994, the first “Rencontres” of African photography opened in Bamako, Mali, at the initiative of two French photographers in love with Africa: Françoise Huguier and Bernard Descamps.
These “Rencontres” showed that despite the technical and economic difficulties ( photography used film at the time) there was an original African photograph.
Today, in Chinon, we present three photographers of this “Bamako” generation.
Two of them, Pierrot Men, the Malagasy and Samuel Fosso the Central African, were the revelations of this first festival.
Pierrot Men is a formidable chronicler of Malagasy life, who captures all the little pleasures, all the moments of poetry that make great photographs.
Samuel Fosso, in black and white, tells his life, his dreams, his desires in self-portraits, sometimes strange to our Western eyes.
The third photographer, Babatoundé Okoya, the Nigerian, had not been “spotted” for Bamako. It was the French photographer Guy Hersant, also passionate about Africa and photography, who met him in Nigeria.
Babatoundé Okoya is a “street” photographer, that is to say, he had no shop, in Lagos, he was the friend of the musician Fela Kuti, the king of Afrobeat. His urban portraits, in color, tell of an equally exuberant city and time.
We have chosen, for this exhibition, rather old, B/W prints of these three photographers.
With digital technology, and the huge spread of smartphones on the continent, it is certain that African photography will experience a “revolution”! To be continued…
Bernard Descamps October 2020
AFRICA # 3 photographers : Babatounde Okoya, Pierrot Men, Samuel Fosso
From October 25 to December 13, 2020
Galerie municipale de la ville de Chinon
24 place du General De Gaulle 37500 CHINON
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Free entry
Observance of safety instructions
