Africa Is a Country

Rainer Elstermanns' "Photo Studio"

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Rainer Elstermanns' "Photo Studio"

By
Sean Jacobs

[slideshow]

The German photographer, Rainer Elstermanns, imagined an old photo studio set in rural Kenya in his studio in Berlin. He dressed models in period costumes.  The result is a 17-minute film and a series of 40 recreations.  Elstermann writes that he was inspired by the work of the great African photographers and artists, Samuel Fosso and Malick Sidibe, as well as the American photographer, Irving Penn.

The result was exhibited in The Netherlands until earlier this week. (I am assuming it will come to the US soon.)

Information and more photographs: Here, here and here.

— Sean Jacobs

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On his latest EP, Kwame Brenya turns a failed migration into musical testimony—offering a biting critique of ECOWAS, broken borders, and the everyday collapse of pan-African ideals.

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