Fethi Sahraoui Wins the 2024 Edition of the Eiger African Photobook of the Year Award.
The 2024 edition of the Eiger African Photobook of the Year Award saw a wealth of photobook submissions from across the African continent. While the photographic series ranged from documentary to more artistic or conceptual projects, the formats of the participating books were equally diverse.
This diversity played a crucial role in the jury’s decision when selecting the winner. Among the four finalists—Léonard Pongo (Belgium, Congo), Asmaa Waguih Eltobi (Egypt), Sabelo Mlangeni (South Africa), and Fethi Sahraoui (Algeria) — it was the latter who won the jury over with his book Triangle of Views, published by the Algerian publisher La Chambre Claire in 2022.
The title is fitting, as the book takes the shape of an equilateral triangle when closed. When opened, it becomes a square, or two outstretched hands, placed side by side, palms facing up. These two hands present us with two long-term documentary projects that the Algerian photographer has been working on since 2015 and 2016. The first, titled Stadiumphilia, focuses on Algerian football stadiums. They serve as a pretext to explore the collective masculine experience of time and space. From these black-and-white crowd scenes, a certain grace and visual poetry emerge, which are also found in the second part of the book, Escaping the Heatwave.
For this project, the photographer followed a group of young men, the same ones from the stadium, as they attempted to escape the intense heat in the cities of Mascara and Relizane. These desolate natural and urban landscapes are punctuated by swims, during which we rediscover the joy and energy that animated these young men during the stadium crowds. The full- page images invite us to dive right in with them.
Influenced by Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson, Fethi Sahraoui has a knack for capturing the narrative potential of an image, which he uses to tell us the story of modern Algeria, offering a unique portrait that intertwines his personal history with collective memory.
Fethi Sahraoui’s Triangle of Views has been awarded the top prize in the Eiger African Photobook of the Year 2024, receiving $12,500, with $2,500 going to each of the three runners-up. The Eiger Foundation hopes these prizes will contribute to the ongoing development of African photography, sparking new and exciting projects from each of these talented photographers.
The Eiger Foundation extends its heartfelt thanks to all the photographers and publishers who participated in this year’s competition for their outstanding entries. Special recognition goes to the Inside Out Centre in Johannesburg for their invaluable support and smooth coordination of the awards.
We look forward to next year’s edition of the Eiger African Photobook of the Year Award and are excited to welcome more compelling entries from the vibrant African continent.
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