My work was selected for LagosPhoto festival in Nigeria. I was there for the opening ceremonie October 8th and photographed the Felabration, the week that celebrates the birthday of Fela Kuti, in his nightclub Shrine in Lagos. This is a starting point for a project on Fela Kuti’s legacy.
With Frederik van Oudenhoven (writer and initiator) and Rene Put (design) I am working on a book on Pamiri traditions and culture. The Pamir Mountains represent one of the more remote and least visited regions of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. A significant crossing point through the mountains of Central Asia, it has been traversed over the millennia by nomads, pilgrims and explorers. Throughout the Middle Ages, it was a key part of the Silk Road trade network, linking China and Europe.
“Clothing” is the name of a series of Dutch photographer Judith Quax – just this. Clothing is also what is visible on her puristic photographies: shirts and jeans on a deserted beach. Sand and water infiltrate the sleeves, inflate the trunk and take the shape of the body clad in those clothings just yet. (…)
The disembodied portraits of “Clothing” seem to continue Judith Quax’ first Senegal series: For her 2007 “Immigrants” she captured the abandoned rooms of young migrants. Lumpy mattresses, fluttering curtains, an everted shirt in the surf: Quax shows West Africa as an abandoned place. This aesthetic of absence also illustrates the fundamental nature of African migration to Europe: From the moment they leave, the migrants become invisible, clandestine, illegal. Even those of them who have reached the “Fortress Europe” without adversities and without being noticed, live here in secret, without doctors, social support or legal representation. (…)
– Christina Felschen
The series Ndeupe, on Senegalese immigrants wives, is exhibited at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, from June – August 2011. This series was also selected for the Noorderlicht Photofestival 2010: Land.
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