Diop is based in Dakar, one of the most cosmopolitan of African capitals (it’s a vital and liberalized gateway to West Africa, and an international hub). He has only worked behind the lens since 2011, when he got so bored with his “very serious job as a desperate corporate manager” that he devoted weekends to shooting landscapes and eventually fashion — which evolved into the sartorial framework of his style-driven images. Like his peers, he had been exposed to a global mix of cultural idioms, and his personal pantheon of photographic heroes includes both Africans (Malick Sidibé, Seydou Keïta) and Westerners (Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Jean-Paul Goude). He was also smitten with canonical painters from Velázquez to Manet, as can be seen in his series Diaspora — wherein he poses as early painted figures but with a whimsical soccer-fan twist. Apart from the infectious fun of Diop’s work — the upbeat mood of his world is highly seductive — he is very determined to examine the nuances of identity that growing up in Dakar’s diverse bandwidth gives rise to. The spirit of giddy fusion runs throughout Diop’s work, but most obviously in his ongoing series in collaboration with Antoine Tempé, Re-mixing Hollywood. They took their favorite movie scenes and restaged them as if they’d been shot in Africa, a valentine to cinema that also touches the persistent industry conundrum of racially biased casting.
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More from the Photographer Spotlight Series:
HIGHLIGHTS AT FRIEZE LONDON 2015
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