Afriphoto, Africultures' photo project, has been promoting photographers of African origin since 2001. Afriphoto offers them visibility and a place of expression.

Through Afriphoto's diverse publishing activities (notably the publication of monographs and, in liaison with the Africultures database, the regular production of articles), through the setting up of events and projects, and through the Afriphoto website, our aim is to promote contemporary and early photography that reflects personal visions on a continent that is all too often seen only from one angle.  

Our objective is twofold. One the one hand, we wish to contribute significantly to deconstructing the negative representations of the African continent that are so deeply anchored in the Western imagination. On the other, our work aims to promote photographers whose sensitivity and sharp eye offers us a quality alternative to the misery-filled visions of Africa that the media constantly inundates us with. It is in this same perspective that we also enthusiastically welcome in-depth work by Western photographers whose photos are situated in, or related to, Africa.

Afriphoto also functions as a photo agency. We try, as far as is possible, to support efforts to help free our associated photographers up from their day-to-day, material constraints, so that they can devote themselves more serenely to their personal work.

In order to best fulfil our role as conveyors, and to participate actively in the creation of a network dynamic and the professionalization of photographers living in countries and contexts that are at times very far and very different from one another, we have set up an online forum. This forum aims to be an open site of exchange enabling participants to reflect together on the stakes of photography on the continent.

Finally, while "African photography" appears to have gained attention and popularity these past few years, certain African photographers nonetheless still face many difficulties on the ground.
Through our articles, we thus try to explore what is not necessarily visible when visiting the major exhibitions and international biennials where these photos get shown. Our interviews – a  format we favour as it allows us preciously to convey the words of those concerned – thereby enable us to broach these dynamics in a broader way and better understand the multiple facets of this photography that we are hearing more and more about today. Acclaimed photographers, studio portraitists, or free-lance photographers are thus each in turn given a platform, as we endeavour to follow what's new in the photo world.

In guise of a conclusion, let us cite the words of Erika Nimis, historian of West African photography, and notably her intervention at the Où va la photographie africaine? (Where is African photography heading?) conference held at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, 7 June 2006:

"How to write a history that reconciles two types of photography: the first, the product of export, which meets the criteria of the art market, and the other, ignored, as it does not confirm to Western discourses on Africa?"

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