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Photograms and Legends

The first edition of the James Barnor Prize, which focuses this year on the West African region, awards photographers Sènami Donoumassou and Fatoumata Diabaté.

‘I came across a magazine with an inscription that said, “A civilisation flourishes when men plant trees under which they themselves never sit.” It’s in this spirit that Ghanaian photographer James Barnor, aged 93, started a prize to support the work of African photographers, focusing each year on a different area of the continent.

© Sènami Donoumassou

© Sènami Donoumassou

© Sènami Donoumassou

This year’s winner Sènami Donoumassou, from Benin, uses photograms, ghostly traces and transparencies to evoke portraits and cult objects of the animist tradition. A special mention went to Fatoumata Diabaté, who works on the topic of female circumcision through symbolic portraits involving Malian masks, legends and tales.

© Sènami Donoumassou

© Fatoumata Diabaté

© Fatoumata Diabaté

© Fatoumata Diabaté

To know more about the prize, visit the website of the James Barnor Foundation.

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