The Other Africa Exhibit -By Philippe Sibelly
Posted by Isaac Amo Kyereme | Posted in Education, Personal,
A unique photographic project aiming to showcase a new vision of the African continent will exhibit in Accra, Ghana for the first time in March 2011.
The Other Africa by photographer Philippe Sibelly is a work in development, with the ultimate aim of creating 54 images, one from each country on the continent.
"Africa suffers from a ‘deficit of image': where Africans see the West mostly through Hollywood movies, we, in the West, only hear about Africa through depressing media headlines," says Sibelly.
According to Sibelly, this includes headlines like: ‘Troops in Mauritania oust the government', ‘Guinea turmoil threatens lucrative mining deal', ‘Dumped computers cause toxic concerns in Ghana' and ‘The Niger Delta: The curse of the black gold'... another normal day in Africa, viewed from the Western Media.
Sibelly adds that, while Africa faces many issues, the positives coming from the continent are never reported on.
"This Afro-pessimism hides many encouraging news. African economies grow at rates far higher than in the West, boosted by high commodity prices. Many countries like France and the UK, the two main former colonial powers, the United States, but more importantly India and China have a renewed interest for these lands," says Sibelly.
Sibelly has photographed seven African countries: Algeria, Mauritania, Cape Verde, Senegal, Cameroon, Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe, and plans to visit Ghana, Togo, Equatorial Guinea and Ethiopia this year.
According to Sibelly, the project is visual and conceptual,
and aims to balance out the deficit of image suffered by Africa. The project is articulated around three main themes; portraits of African workers from the emerging middle class; cityscapes at night; and portraits of radio DJs.
"I spend a long time researching and creating contacts before each trip to be able to photograph as quickly as possible once in Africa. 'Middle class' is a generic term quite difficult to define precisely. I take great care in choosing my models as I have to identify Africans enjoying lifestyles close to the ones of the European middle class (work, family, holidays...)," says Sibelly.
Sibelly was born in France and is now based in London in the United Kingdom. An exhibition of his project in development can be seen from 12 March 2011 at Alliance Française d'Accra, Ghana
