Adinkra studio portrait, Togo.

Elder wearing an adinkra cloth. Studio portrait, Togo. Stamp on the reverse reads “Elegance Photo Studio, S.Adewola, Niamtougou, Togo.” Date stamped 14 March 1985.

Click here to view our selection of adinkra cloths.

Omar Viktor Diop’s Studio of Vanities

From the earliest days of studio photography in West Africa in the late nineteenth century local textiles have figured prominently both as costume for the sitters and as backdrops. The now celebrated Malian photographers of the post- Independence era, Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé, along with many lesser known  contemporaries, continued the same practice. Today we take a look at the tradition referenced and continued in the work of current art fair favourite Omar Viktor Diop in his portrait series “The Studio of vanities”.

Milo – Fashion designer photo by Omar Viktor Diop

“THE STUDIO OF VANITIES
Staged Portraits of Africa's Contemporary Urban Scene.

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These are the fresh faces of the continent's urban culture. They are black, arabs, caucasian, asian...it doesn't matter. They are creative and ambitious, but most importantly, they dedicate their everyday lives to making their dreams a reality. In this series, the objective is to portray a generation which endeavours to showcase the African urban universe and its blossoming art production and exchanges.

The intent is to go beyond the strictly asthetic depiction of a beautiful youth... Every portrait is the outcome of a collaboration between the sitter and the photographer.”

Tamsir Ndir –DJ, Chef  photo by Omar Viktor Diop

Boddhi Satva – DJ, producer  photo by Omar Viktor Diop

Sabine Blaizin – DJ, producer  photo by Omar Viktor Diop

Selly Rabe Kane & Mamdou Diallo – Fashion Designer & Journalist photo by Omar Viktor Diop

View the full series at Omarviktor.com

Two ladies in Indigo–Thies, Senegal, circa 1910

Hand-coloured vintage postcard, circa 1910, publisher E.H. , Thies, Senegal. Both ladies wear indigo dyed boubou, one has a strip woven indigo pagne, the other a stitch and tied resist example. The lady on the left has a fine embroidered resist shawl around her shoulders and across her lap.

Ababio II, Chief of Jamestown, Accra, 1930s.

Fragment of a commemorative cloth in the Musee du Quai Branly, Paris showing Chief Ababio, Jamestown, Accra.

The same chief can be seen in two photographs in the book  Ghana Photo Memories (Filigranes Editions/Africultures, 2007) that showcases the work of the photographer J.K.Bruce Vanderpuije, whose studio, now operated by his elderly son, is still to found in Jamestown.

Chief Ababio II of Jamestown, 1934.

Chief Ababio II of Jamestown, 1939

The Queen mother of Jamestown and her attendants, 1932.

All photos by J.K. Bruce Vanderpuije. Click to enlarge.

Studio portrait, Mauretania.

Caption “Pullo debbo, Muritani” – Fulani woman, Mauretania.

from “Fulanitube” on Facebook.

Family portrait, Mali(?), circa 1920s

Not a great piece of photography or printing but I love this family group portrait postcard I just received today. Photographer and location are unknown but I would guess Mali or Guinea around 1920. What can be seen of the pattern on the blanket hung as a backdrop is quite unusual. Click on the photo to enlarge.

Wodaabe–“nomads who cultivate beauty”

Photo taken from the book “Nomads who cultivate beauty” by Mette Bovin (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2001) in my view the most interesting of many books on the Wodaabe nomads of Niger. Bovon notes that this picture was taken in 1975 by a local photographer Yacoubou in Diffa. She noted – ‘Young men nowadays laugh when they see this photo, and comment “How old-fashioned they look, the mirrors are too big and hanging too low. Our fashion today is much smarter, more chic. But look, all three men’s faces are pretty.”’

Two hand-coloured portraits, Senegal, early C20th.

Guinea Conakry Fashion 1900

All these images are by one of my favourite of the early African studio photographers, A.James, active in Conakry circa 1900-1910. As far as I am aware, and unlike many of his contemporaries, his life and work has as yet not been researched. They are superbly evocative images, combining poise, beauty, fashionable hairstyles, jewellery, locally woven and imported textiles ….

More on “The Fashionable Hair”–style on Africa’s west coast in the 1900s

In a post last month I looked at a series of early postcards by the African photographer Arkhurst showing images of women’s dress and hair styles on Africa’s west coast, the region stretching from Nigeria up to Sierra Leone, in the early 1900s. Since so many people enjoyed seeing them, today I have brought together another group of postcards from the same era, this time by other photographers, showing similar fashions. All photos author’s collection, click to enlarge.

“Gold Coast, Fanti Woman” – postcard circa 1900, photographer “W.S. Johnston & Sons, Art Photographers, Freetown, Sa Leone.”

The above two photos “Gold in evidence gold coast Type” and “Gold Coast Beauty” are a rare instance of two views from the same sitting. Photographer “Photoholm – Lagos” circa 1900.

“Fantee-women” published by L. Pagenstecher & Co, Sekondi. circa 1900.

“Accra” – photographer and publisher unknown. circa 1900.

“Sekondi – Fantee Woman” photographer and publisher unknown. circa 1900.

“Congo. Femme Acra” photographer and publisher unknown. circa 1900.

For a discussion of this kind of image in the wider context of the history of photography in Africa I can recommend the book Photography and Africa by Erin Haney (reaktion books, 2010.)

“The Fashionable Hair”– Africa’s coastal style in the 1900s

These images are from two series of postcards produced between 1900 and 1910 by the photographer F.W.H Arkhurst in Grand Bassam, Ivory Coast. Arkhurst, a member of the Nzima ethnic group born in the Gold Coast , was a timber exporter who lived in Assinie and later in Grand Bassam. His studio photographs capture perfectly the then fashionable style of  women’s dress along the African coast from the Niger Delta to the Ivory Coast as families grew prosperous from trading opportunities in the expanding colonial economies. Hair was swept high and adorned with gold jewellery or wrapped in cloth, tailored dress was of imported cotton prints, often with a shawl or wrap of locally woven fabrics.