テート・ギャラリーさんのインスタグラム写真 - (テート・ギャラリーInstagram)「Get to know... Samuel Fosso 💐 ‘I’m only one person but I facilitate things. I’m a defender of all of them; I communicate the past in the present.’⁣ ⁣ At the age of 13 Samuel Fosso set up a photography studio in Bangui, in the Central African Republic, after fleeing the civil war in Nigeria. He began taking self-portraits to fill up the unused parts of his films, sending them to his grandmother who remained in Nigeria ‘to reassure her that everything was going well’. Fosso would buy fabrics and take them to a tailor along with American magazines, asking them to recreate the iconic, flamboyant styles of the 70s—the outcomes shown in the first two images here, taken when Fosso was 17.⁣ ⁣ In his photographs he experiments with props, costumes and poses, exploring the idea of self-representation and gender expression. Over the decades, his self-portraits have developed into a series of experimental works that have gained him international recognition. In 1994 he won an award at African Photography Encounters, Africa’s foremost photography festival. He is widely considered to be one of central Africa's most important contemporary artists. ⁣ ⁣ The remaining images are from the celebrated series ‘African Spirits’, which, through his self-portraits as celebrated Black figures, conveys empowerment and the art of storytelling. These theatrical self-portraits pay tribute to fourteen political, intellectual and cultural figures from Pan-African historical movements and the US Civil Rights Movement. Through significant research and careful staging, Fosso recreates recognisable photographs of notable figures including Angela Davis, Muhammad Ali and Nelson Mandela. The series was unveiled in 2008 during the election of the first Black US president, Barack Obama.⁣ ⁣ Untitled, 1979, Untitled, 1978,⁣ African Spirits, 2008 (as Nelson Mandela)⁣ African Spirits, 2008 (as Martin Luther King Jr.)⁣ African Spirits, 2008 (as Angela Davis)⁣ African Spirits, 2008 (as Tommie Smith)」7月2日 2時17分