Samuel Fosso of the Central African Republic and Mody Sory Diallo of Guinée both work within photographic traditions dominant in Africa - studio portraiture and photojournalism. The first British exhibition of their work reveals how both photographers have developed their chosen genre beyond the familiar.

SAMUEL FOSSO

Samuel Fosso was born Nigeria in 1962. Forced to leave the country during the Biafran war, he joined his brother in the Central African Republic and became apprenticed to a Nigerian portrait photographer. At the age of thirteen he set up his own portrait studio, and by sixteen had started to experiment with self-portraiture. In this series of staged portraits Fosso plays with his self-image, altering his appearance and adopting different persona through clothes and accessories. His sensual photographs explore the construction of self-image and reflect an adolescent search for identity.

MODY SORY DIALLO

Until President Sékou Touré of Guinée's overthrow in 1984, hundreds of people who opposed his regime were imprisoned in the infamous Camp Boiro in Conarky. On the day that the camp was opened and its prisoners freed, Mody Sory Diallo explored these newly deserted chambers of torture and incarceration. His powerful images of the graffiti that covered the prison walls serve as meditations on imprisonment and freedom, poignantly reflecting the hopes, fears and dreams of the camp's former inhabitants.

Supported by Visiting Arts and part of the africa95 festival

Review of the africa95 festival by Michael Clarke here