By Céline Seror, founder of ARTNESS
What strikes you the most when you stand for the first time in front of Angèle Etoundi Essamba’s photographs are the eyes. Over the past 30 years, the Cameroonian photographer has built a unique collection of black women portraits getting to the essence of African femininity. In her work, Essamba breaks away from stereotypical representations of a continent torn by famines, epidemics and wars, and instead, celebrates the many faces of the African woman across cultural, social and physical identities.
Her outlook is equally aesthetic, realistic, and intimate and lies at the intersection of the social and artistic fields. Naturally, Essamba’s work joins the spirit of humanistic photography to the values of communion, solidarity and equality between men and women. Pride, strength, and consciousness of African women, as well as the relation between tradition and modernity, is what Essamba’s black & white photography reveal.
“ Through her lens of great immediacy and powerful curiosity, Angèle Etoundi Essamba enables us not just to look or nor at, but to actually look into what is portrayed, captured or created in her work” UNESCO, Paris
“Angèle Etoundi Essamba is rightly celebrated as the most prominent African woman photographer of her generation” The World Bank Art Program, Washington D.C.
Angèle Etoundi Essamba was born in Douala and grew up in Yaoundé. She lives and works in Amsterdam.
ARTNESS is proud to represent the work of Angèle Etoundi Essamba. To schedule a private or group visit to her studio, feel free to contact Céline Seror at celine.seror@artness.nl or +31 6 50 29 67 65
ARTNESS is an art agency located in Amsterdam aiming at: -representing new works of art through a portfolio of renowned and emerging artists, -advising private and corporate collectors on the choice of their next art acquisition, -coordinating art-related projects such as artist studio visits, workshops, publications and events across the world. www.artness.nl
