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Samuel Fosso

70's Lifestyle series, 1957-78

Information

Location Gallery 2
Artist

Samuel Fosso

*1962, Kumba, Kamerun

lives and works in Bangui, Central African Republic (CAR)
Title 70's Lifestyle series, 1957-78
Medium Gelatin silver print
Copyright © Samuel Fosso, courtesy Jean Marc Patras, Paris
Exhibition number AW108

Audio guide

The young man posing here, in bell-bottoms and in front of a hand-painted backdrop, is now one of the most renowned African photographers: Samuel Fosso. In 1975, at the age of just thirteen, he opened his own photographic studio in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. During the day, he photographed his clients; at night, he turned the lens on himself to finish the roll of film. Some of the self-portraits were for his grandmother, who remained in Nigeria after he was sent to live with an uncle to escape political instability in the aftermath of the Biafran War. With the photographs, Fosso wanted to reassure his grandmother that he was safe and well. In these portraits, Fosso experiments with different roles and poses, drawing inspiration from images of pop stars and other celebrities seen in magazines and on record covers.

"I did not know I was making art photography. What I did know was that I was transforming myself into what I wanted to become. I was living out a series of ideas about myself.“ - Quote Samuel Fosso

Since the 1970s Fosso has consistently used his own body to explore issues of race, identity, and history.

"When I work, it's always a performance that I choose to undertake. It's not a subject or an object; it's one more human being. I link my body to this figure, because I want to translate its history." - Quote Samuel Fosso

A particularly intimate work is the series "Memoire d'un Ami", in which the artist appears undisguised, naked and vulnerable. It's an attempt to come to terms with the murder of a friend. Samuel Fosso was hiding in the same house when his friend was killed by members of an armed Central African militia. An image from that series is also on display in this room.

Further artworks from this exhibition