Camera Obscura

The upcoming LagosPhoto Festival highlights photography that imagines alternative African realities and obscures the medium's role as truth-teller.
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Karl Ohiri and Riikka Kassinen, The Medicine Man (I’ll Take Care of You), 2013, 50 x 60 cm, Image: Karl Ohiri and Riikka Kassinen.
Karl Ohiri and Riikka Kassinen stage a performance where the artist takes on the persona of a traditional African healer wearing beads made of his deceased mother’s medication, acting as a coping mechanism and mourning ritual. Here is "The Medicine Man (I’ll Take Care of You)". Image: Karl Ohiri and Riikka Kassinen.
Jenevieve Aken, Untitled III, from the series The Masked Woman, 2014, 76 x 55 cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
Nigerian photographer Jenevieve Aken adopts performative strategies as she explores the “super femme fatale” character and its conflicting ideas of freedom and isolation in a constricted social environment. This is an untitled work from her series "The Masked Woman". Image: Jenevieve Aken.
Jenevieve Aken, Untitled IV, from the series The Masked Woman, 2014, 55 x 76 cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
Aken's work as a model is reflected in this untitled work, also from her series "The Masked Woman". Image: Jenevieve Aken.
Cristina de Middel, Untitled, from the series This is What Hatred Did, 2014, 42 x 52.49 cm, Image courtesy of the artist and La New Gallery, Madrid.
Spanish photographer Cristina de Middel recontextualises a Nigerian novel from the 1960s to create narratives that blend historical obscurity and the documentary tradition. This is an untitled work from her series "This is What Hatred Did". Image: Courtesy of the artist and La New Gallery, Madrid.
Cristina de Middel, Untitled, from the series This is What Hatred Did, 2014, 19.4 x 24.25 cm, Image: Courtesy of the artist and La New Gallery, Madrid.
An untitled work from De Middel's "This is What Hatred Did". She is most well-known for her 2012 self-published photobook, "The Afronauts", a fictional account of Zambia's short-lived space programme. Image: Courtesy of the artist and La New Gallery, Madrid.
Cristina de Middel, Untitled, from the series This is What Hatred Did, 2014, 19.4 x 24.25 cm, Image: Courtesy of the artist and La New Gallery, Madrid.
Another untitled work from Cristina de Middel's series "This is What Hatred Did". Image: Courtesy of the artist and La New Gallery, Madrid.
Patrick Willocq, Walé Lokito and her belongings, from the series I am Walé Respect Me, 2013, 109 x 145 cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
Patrick Willocq constructs non-Western narratives and mise-en-scène in collaboration with local communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, documenting local customs through carefully composed performative images. Here is "Walé Lokito and her belongings" from the series "I am Walé Respect Me". Image: Patrick Willocq.
Namsa Leuba, Untitled I, from the series Cocktail, 2011, 60 x 43.81 cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
Namsa Leuba infuses fashion and portraiture to critique the representation of the female body that is at once fictional and fantastical. This is Untitled I, from her series "Cocktail". Image: Namsa
Namsa Leuba, Untitled II, from the series Cocktail, 2011, 60 x 43.81 cm, Image: Namsa Leuba.
Leuba, who is of Guinean and Swiss descent, has a special interest through her visual work in the African identity through Western eyes. This is Untitled II, from her series "Cocktail". Image: Namsa Leuba.
Namsa Leuba, Untitled II, from the series Cocktail, 2011, 60 x 43.81 cm, Image: Namsa Leuba.
The Cocktail series was originally shot for WAD (short for We Are Different) magazine's 53 issue. Untitled III, from the series Cocktail, 2011. Image: Namsa Leuba.
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Five artists portray imagined African futures in a series of fictional photographs for Documenting Fiction, presented by LagosPhoto recently at the FNB Joburg Art Fair. The selection of artists highlight the thematic scope of the LagosPhoto Festival taking place from 25 October to 26 November in Nigeria. 

The festival was founded in 2010 to establish a community of contemporary photographers who encapsulate individual experiences and identities from across Africa. 

LagosPhoto shines a spotlight on contemporary artists who move beyond the confines of the photojournalistic gaze or photography as a "window to the world" to incorporate conceptual and performative practices that expand traditional photographic approaches.
 
Utilising genres such as staged narratives, performance, appropriation and self-portraiture, these artists push the temporal and spatial boundaries of the photographic medium.
 
The five featured artists shown here consider the complex social and political concerns that define a new Africa in the 21st century. As the range of images attests, they explore how the ubiquity of images plays a vital role in how reality is constructed and articulated. 
 
Take a virtual walk through the exhibition's striking images by scrolling through our Lookbook above.