The exhibition focuses on the work of the earliest local photographers working in West and Central Africa. Towards the end of the 19th century, together with their clients, they began to produce captivating images in outdoor studios. Future viewers of their images were always kept in mind; the sitters posed as they wanted to be seen by posterity. These images are remarkably different from the work of colonial photographers whose work served to confirm the Other as backward and exotic.
With around one hundred original prints on view, the exhibition considers the key themes in the history of photography in West and Central Africa with a focus on its peculiarities and its connections with other local art forms.