Recently in Africa Photo Books Category

Photographer David Pace has spent a lot of time in Bereba village in Burkina Faso, and knows the FAVL libraries in the region inside out.  He has a new series of "Friday night dance" fotos, and will have a show at the Mercy Center in Burlingame until the end of June. There will be a reception and talk on Saturday afternoon, 2-4pm, June 2. Be there!!!!

Although I feel like this article very much simplifies the reasons behind behavioral change to "something being lost in translation" when aid is only delivered in elite languages, it is definitely a very important consideration that if oftentimes not addressed in projects. A lot of people in villages here in Burkina don't understand French, and it's very important to spread messages of the importance of health care, education and development in both the official language of a country and it's many local languages. Thus, Translators Without Borders is taking on a very noble and difficult (tiny Burkina alone has over 65 different languages spoken within its borders) task. It's a task that FAVL also participate in, especially with our various photo books that are in French/Dioula and in Dioula. This helps spread literacy and important messages of education amongst even those who are not literate in French.    

Daylight Magazine just posted an interview with FAVL friend David Pace about his photographs from Burkina Faso, on their online blog. An excerpt:

Yet another challenge involved working with Santa Clara University, where I teach photography, to develop a study abroad program. After my third trip, one of my colleagues at the University suggested that we propose a study abroad program in Burkina Faso. Our proposal was accepted. We became co-directors of "Reading West Africa" and we began to learn about the challenges (and joys) of bringing a group of college students to a developing nation for a semester. We took our first cohort of students in the fall of 2009 and the second in the fall of 2010. This allowed me to spend three months in Burkina Faso each year. I had already become a familiar sight in the village, but by 2009 Bereba began to feel like home.

It was during this period that I began to attend the weekly Friday night dances at Le Cotonnier with my friends from the village. We drank warm beer and danced all night under the stars. Other than the generator that powers the music, there's no electricity and no light - a challenge for any photographer! I began to experiment with flash, dancing while I was shooting, and rarely looking through the viewfinder. This was not a "project": it was my life in the village. Boundaries collapsed: I made photographs as a participant rather than an observer. The element of chance became an integral part of the process since I never knew what images I was going to get.

Interview with David Pace Winner, Daylight/CDS Photo Awards Work-in-Process Prize.  The full interview is here.  Very interesting.  Great photos.  Look carefully... in one of them a guy is wearing a typical full-on Barack Obama shirt!

The images in Friday Night seem formally quite different from your other work, such as Re: Collections, or even the series Kiosks and Market Day from Burkina Faso. Would you agree?

You are quite right that the images in Friday Night are different from my other work. I am by nature very formal in my approach to composition. I favor simplicity and symmetry in an attempt to foreground my subjects, whether they are people or objects, and emphasize their similarities and differences. This is clear in the Re: Collections project and in the Kiosks portfolio. Both are classic typologies in the tradition of August Sander and the Bechers. I think my African portraits fall into this category as well.

But I also like to experiment with the element of chance and challenge myself to move outside my comfort zone. That is what is behind Friday Night. I am literally shooting in the dark. I can see my primary subjects dimly, but the background of each image is unseen until my flash fires. Everyone is in constant motion, including myself, so every image is a surprise. The juxtaposition of contorted bodies, hands and feet, shadows and expressions is not something one can predict.

Another thing that distinguishes Friday Night from my other work is that I am an active participant in the process rather than an objective observer. I am caught up in the music, moving and sweating alongside the other dancers, reacting and interacting. This was not possible the first two or three times I visited Bereba. I had to get to know the villagers and earn their trust. I now feel very much at home in the village and an insider at the dance. Everyone expects me to make photographs and they are delighted with the results. I should add that I take back and distribute all the images that I make on each subsequent trip. I have more than 500 prints that I'll be handing out when I visit Bereba in December.

We can't say enough about how much kids like these photo books produced through the Santa Clara University Reading West Africa study abroad program.  Except that we need your help to print more and make them widely available.  Consider approaching someone who has the means, and ask them to make a large donation ($5,000) so we can print books and distribute them to all the public libraries in larger towns in Burkina Faso!

(Photo: David Pace, Children in Bereba village hold RWA books, 2010)

Article sur l'etat de la photographie au Burkina Faso:

L'homme s'est fait un nom dans la photographie burkinabè. Aujourd'hui, Warren Saré veut exporter la photographie burkinabè, à travers la création de son Centre de photographie de Ouagadougou (CPD), et surtout une caravane de l'image jusqu'à Bamako.

Sidwaya (S) : Comment se porte la photographie burkinabè ? Warren Saré (W.S) : La photographie burkinabè ne se porte pas bien. Parce qu'elle est absente des instances de la photographie mondiale. En dépit des efforts, deux photographes, Seydou Dicko et Nestor Da essaient d'être sur la scène internationale. La photographie burkinabè peut s'imposer sur la scène internationale, si nous avons des acteurs convaincus qu'ils peuvent à travers leurs appareils, contribuer au développement de leur pays.

David Pace has won the 2011 Daylight / CDS Photo Work-in-Process Prize for his Friday Night series.  From the website:

In recognition of a mutual interest in documentary and fine art photography, Daylight Magazine and the Center for Documentary Studies started an international competition in spring 2010, the Daylight/CDS Photo Awards, to honor and promote talented and committed photographers, both emerging and established.

The full panel of jurors will choose one First Prize Winner. Each Guest Juror will also select one photographer to receive a Juror's Pick Prize and write a short statement about why he or she choose the work. 

The First Prize Winner will be featured in print in Daylight Magazine and CDS's newsmagazine Document, as well as in Daylight and CDS online galleries and be part of a group exhibition at the Center for Documentary Studies.

Congratulations David!

Image: From Friday Night. Photograph by David Pace, 2011

FAVL received some wonderful new books from Kathy Knowles of Osu Children's Library Fund.  We sent them off the Ghana for the libraries in Bolgatanga area.  But one foto struck me- the orange cap belongs to our wonderful FAVL/RWA driver Francois.  See Kathy's complete catalog here.

David Pace had another photo essay published in Lens Culture magazine featuring photos of the Friday night dance in Bereba.