I start the week with David Paul Carr, an English photographer based in Paris, France. His work includes editorial, corporate, institutional and NGO photography projects. His website has galleries showcasing his work in Benin, Istanbul, Kashmir and Banda Aceh among others.
His photographs are extremely powerful and I am delighted by his work from Benin...remarkable sensitivity and, in my view, captivating environmental portraiture. I am working on a long-term project that involves similar portraiture, and I'm glad to have found David's portfolio of Benin, as it's an inspiration.
Unfortunately, there is no text nor are there captions to accompany his Benin photographs, but I did some research. Benin is a small West African country, formerly known as Dahomey. Its largest neighbor is Nigeria to its east. As Dahomey, the country was part of the French West Africa until independence in 1960.
David's portraits are of the Yoruba people. They are a large ethno-linguistic group in Benin, and whose diasporic communities exist in Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Trinidad, the Caribbean, and the United States. Moreover, it is believed that "Voodoo" originated in Benin and was introduced to these countries by slaves taken from this particular area. The indigenous religion of Benin is practiced by about 60% of the population. This is why you'll see images in the Benin gallery of religious artifacts and of women wearing masks.
I chose this lovely photograph of a Yoruba girl in front of a school's chalkboard for this post. The hand -presumably that of the teacher- writes the words "that the lazy fail surprises no one" in French. There are many other wonderful images on David's website, such as the one of the young Yoruba girl holding a white doll (also a favorite), but to me...it's the girl at school that I prefer. Maybe it's her eyes, maybe it's her expression...I don't know.
David's Benin - Ketou Flash gallery.
David's Benin-Ketou Slideshow.
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