FOAM MAGAZINE #17 / PORTFOLIO? / SAMUEL FOSSO

Samuel Fosso (Kunmba, Cameroon, 1962) lived in Nigeria as a child, but due to the Biafra war he moved to Bangui in 1972. In 1994, thanks to the research of French photographer Bernard Deschamps, his work was brought to a wider audience and was included in the first Rencontres de la Photographie Africaine in Bamako, Mali, launched by Françoise Hugier. His work was exhibited at the Noorderlicht Photofestival in Groningen in 2000, and in 2001 he received the prestigious Dutch Prince Claus Fund Award. In the past years Fosso’s work has been shown in major global venues such as the Centre National de la Photographie in Paris, the Photographers’ Gallery and the Barbican Art Gallery in London, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and Tate Modern in London. He was included in the acclaimed Africa Remix exhibition which toured worldwide between 2004 and 2007, and also in the 26th Sao Paolo Biennale in 2004. His work is in held in many museum collections worldwide, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; International Center of Photography, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Studio Museum, Harlem and the Centre Pompidou, Paris. His work was presented at the Rencontre d'Arles festival in the summer of 2008, and his latest series African Spirits is on view at Galerie Jean Marc Patras in Paris until March 2009. Fosso still runs his portrait and passport photography studio in Bangui, where most of the local community remains unaware of his international success as an artist - a situation Fosso has been keen to maintain.