With the gaining of independence of several African countries, Africans in photographs began to have more and more of a say in how they were photographed. This agency, this power to dictate how they wished to be seen became entrenched in the practices of African photographers after the colonial era.
What does any of it have to do with painting?
A Bakaïmo makes you at home in the bliss and intimacy of figures that would ordinarily have jarred or repelled. Even when he shows violence, it doesn’t repel or revulse.
Artworks and projects that subtly weave in social and political awareness into a broader tapestry of our everyday human concerns have the potential to acquire more immersive and complex dimensions.