Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou Citizens of Porto-Novo
29 March – 7 April 2018, Jack Bell Gallery, London/ From April 6 until June 3: Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
About:
Jack Bell Gallery is pleased to present a new body of work by Bienese photographer, Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou. His ongoing portraiture project, ‘Citizens of Porto-Novo,’ captures the people of Benin’s capital. Using a daylight studio, Agbodjelou interprets the experience of a generation caught between tradition and progress.
Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou is known for his dramatic photographs that capture the dynamic energy of contemporary Porto-Novo. Drawing on subjects from cultural and street life, Agbodjélou produces carefully composed photographs using medium format film and natural light. Trained by his father, the world-renowned studio photographer, Joseph Moise Agbodjélou in the conventions of West African studio photography, Agbodjélou reinterprets these traditional methods through his own unique approach and individual style.
Since 2009, Agbodjélou has been presenting his photographs as part of his ongoing Citizens of Porto Novoproject. The various thematic bodies of work include; From Dahomey to Benin, Borderlands, Demoiselles de Porto Novo, Muscle Men, Egungun and his latest Camouflage series.
About:
Agbodjélou was born in 1965 in Porto-Novo, Benin, where he still lives and works. He is the founder and director of the first photographic school in Benin which opened in 2013, and has recently been appointed the president of the Photographer’s Association of Porto-Novo. Agbodjélou is the recipient of the 2013 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize which he was awarded by the National Portrait Gallery in London, UK.
He presented his first solo exhibition From Dahomey to Benin in 2010 in London. The Egungun Project was presented in Germany in 2013, followed by his latest solo exhibition Code Noir in 2014 in London; Egungun Masquerades at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town , South Africa in 2015 and, most recently Borderlands at Jack Bell Gallery in London, UK in 2016.
His work has been exhibited widely in Africa and internationally. Notable group exhibitions include: Betwixt and Between: Contemporary African Photography at the Museum of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland; Out of Focus: Photography at the Saatchi Gallery in London, UK both in 2012; Revealed 2 at the Samtag Museum of Art in Adelaide, Australia in 2013; Lagos Photo Festival in Nigeria in 2014; All Things Being Equal at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), in Cape Town, South Africa; X: Part III at SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch, South Africa both in 2017.(text SMAC Gallery, SA)