The portraits of Antoine Tempé
Ibrahima Thiam, 2012.
About:
Zanele Muholi, 2012.
Aujourd’hui installé à Dakar, Sénégal, Antoine Tempé est un photographe spécialisé dans la documentation des cultures contemporaines africaines à travers le portrait et le photo-reportage.
French-born, Antoine moved to New York in the mid-80s, where he became instantly fascinated by the multicultural character of the city. In the ’90s, after first contemplating a career in dance, he started taking photographs. Encouraged by regular publications in the French PHOTO and his initial success documenting the New York nightlife for European magazines, he began photographing dancers in his studio. He was soon working with various New York based dance companies both on commercial and personal projects, with his photographs appearing in American and European publications.
In the year 2000, Antoine embarked on a one-year photographic journey through West Africa and Madagascar. This and subsequent extended stays on the continent lay the foundation for several bodies of work, among which “Dancers of Africa” and “Faces of Africa” have been exhibited aux Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie Africaine de Bamako en 2007.
Omar Victor Diop, 2012.
Since then he has split his time between Paris, West Africa, Brazil and New York, advancing his personal artistic projects while shooting commercial assignments, covering dance festivals or teaching photography workshops.
In 2008, in collaboration with choreographer Salia Sanou, Antoine Tempé published the book Afrique, danse contemporaine (Éditions Cercle d’Art/Centre National de la Danse). (text from website Tempé)
