Last year I travelled to The Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ghana and Angola. Between my commissioned work I photographed the strongmen of the ports of West Africa.
It's difficult to do this if you are not pushy because power, language and cultural relations are not knowable immediately. My assistant, Laurant, at one point, while translating and smoothing the portrait process, called on the sitters to 'take your style!'.
As soon as the workers understood this they began to fashion their own portraits and own the process and the outcome. I feel that both parties benefitted, and that an exteriority and mode of presentation typical of the general region emerged.
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