Photos that Speak Volumes — Angèle Etoundi Essamba
About Angèle Etoundi Essamba
Angèle Etoundi Essamba, a Cameroonian-born photographer, has been proclaimed one of the most accomplished African female photographers of her generation. We explore in some detail the Women of Water series which focuses on Ganvié, a lake village in the Benin Republic, a country in West Africa. The only means of transportation to and from the village is by boat.
From Cameroon to France: A Journey in Light
Angèle talks about her journey at the age of none traveling alone on an airplane as she left her home of Cameroon for a new beginning in France. The experience is something she will never forget. It has informed her photography. She discusses her training as a photographer and how when she began there was no digital photography. Even though she can shoot hundreds and thousands of pictures with a memory card Angèle is careful with every shot something she had to do in the era of film photography. Angèle shares why she is drawn to photograph women and Africa and the special affection she has for Ganvié. She also shares why her background makes her a woman of water.
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00:00:04 Pam Ferris-Olson Today on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast on womenmindthewater.com, I'm speaking with Angèle Etoundi Essamba, a Cameroonian-born photographer. Angèle has been proclaimed one of the most accomplished African female photographers of her generation. Angèle was educated in France and later trained at the Dutch School for Professional Photography. Her captivating photos reflect the lives of Black women. They have been collected and displayed as part of many public collections across the globe.
00:00:39 Angèle Etoundi Essamba is the latest guest on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast on womenmindthewater.com. The podcast engages artists in conversation about their work and explores their connection with the water. Through their stories, Wo(men) Mind the Water hopes to inspire and encourage action to protect water and all the creatures that depend on it.
00:00:58 I am honored to speak with Angèle Etoundi Essamba on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast. Her work was brought to my attention by Tracy Metz, another guest on this podcast. Tracy felt that Angèle and I had synergy due to her collection titled Women on the Water. After I saw Angèle’s work I knew I had to talk with her and share her amazing photos. I think her work will enrich our perspective on women, particularly Black women, their world and water.
00:01:33 Welcome Angèle. Your work, indeed, is impressive. And while your work extends over many decades, I hope you won’t mind if we explore in some detail the Women of Water series which was originally published as a hardcover book. It’s focus is Ganvié, a lake village in the Benin Republic, a country in West Africa. The town was created by people who were trying to avoid the slave trade. The only means of transportation to and from the village is by boat.
00:02:08 Angèle, you are a woman rooted on two continents – Africa and Europe. You were born in Cameroon but much of your schooling took place in France and later you went to The Netherlands to study photography. What attracted you to photography and why did you think it was something you wanted to pursue as a career?
00:02:31 Angèle Etoundi Essamba First of all, thank you very much. Thank you very much, Pamela, for inviting me at the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast. You made a good introduction already, and I thank Tracy also, who connected us. From a very young age already, I was always quite fascinated by people. I used to observe, to look, and in my head of little girl, you know, I was just imagining how I could capture all that movement, expressions, emotions. The photography I do today is just a natural extension of that way of seeing.
00:03:26 Pam Ferris-Olson Do you think that maybe because you grew up in Cameroon and then went to France, that when you got to Amsterdam, the language was a barrier. It made you be an observer, and that's where your focus came from.
00:03:42 Angèle Etoundi Essamba I left Cameroon at a very young age because of health issues, health problems. I was nine years old, and this was in January 1972. It was my first time traveling and, of course, it was an incredible culture shock. I was handed over to a stewardess at that time. I was handed over to a stewardess with a little pouch on my neck with my name and all my documents and just put in that plane, you know. At that time, this plane with a propeller, you know, making a lot of noises. I was totally terrified at that moment. And I mean, I cried the entire journey.
00:04:57 I felt alone. I felt abandoned. I really felt lost, you know. And I think that flight will remain the longest, the longest flight of my life, the longest journey. I arrived and I saw everyone, everyone in the plane just leaving. And I was like the last one until another stewardess came to pick me up, walk with me toward the exit. Then there I saw my father waiting. The relief of finally seeing a familiar face after so many hours. This is something that I will never forget.
00:05:52 So I saw my father and jumped into his arms and felt the security again, you know.
And at the same time, I was totally overwhelmed. I mean, I was suddenly in a different place, different people, different culture, different language. Even though we used to speak French in Cameroon, but this was totally a different environment. Suddenly, I was part of a minority. You know, in Cameroon I was surrounded by my own people, my family, friends. And this was just different.
00:06:45 And then the second shock was, of course, ithe experience of winter, the winter and the cold. I've never felt cold before, never seen snow before. So it's all very strange. And this experience, even of being uprooted at such a young age, you know, it shaped-- it really shaped my identity profoundly. One of resilience, of course, of also being aware of all these contrasts and the notion of belonging. It's these are themes that will be part of my photography. Will be part of my, I mean, seems that will be recurrent in my whole artistic work.
00:07:49 Pam Ferris-Olson Yes, thank you for sharing that. Very emotional. You painted a picture that I can see and now I really do understand the root of your photographic eye. So let me ask you, was there digital photography when you attended the Dutch School for Professional Photography? And tell listeners who may not be aware of it, since we live in a digital age, what it's like to make photographs when using film and paper.
00:08:18 Angèle Etoundi Essamba When I started photography, it wasn't digital. Digital photography didn't exist yet. All was with film. And it was really-- it's a different experience.
You just learn to be so much more careful, and to look, and to observe, and to see. So it's a very different approach. The whole process, which for me was really something magical; that
you have to wait to develop the film, even to print the image, to see really how it looks like. So all this time of waiting and not knowing what is going to come out. It was very learnful because you learn to be patient, of course, but also precision.
00:09:31 Making the shift to digital photography, it was much more than practical reasons. But actually, it didn't change much the way I approach my model and the way I still work. Because even today when I can shoot like hundreds and thousands of pictures with a memory card and I'm still very careful with every shot. I mean, it's for me, every shot is like the last, you know. So I'm just very cautious with that.
00:10:18 Pam Ferris-Olson So what draws you to focus your camera on Africa?
00:10:22 Angèle Etoundi Essamba It's my continent. It's the continent where I was born and I'm very interested in its culture. I'm interested in its everyday realities, and I think it's for me, it still remains an exhaustible source of inspiration. You know, I wanted to bring a different narrative to the continent. We have these images of Africa, which is torn by famine, by war, by epidemics, and where women are oppressed, dependent, passive, or reduced to certain roles, you know, servants. And I wanted to deconstruct and to break with all these stereotypes by showing a continent which is much more complex than only that and which has a rich cultural diversity, which is in the booming, which is bursting of creativity. Whether is it in fashion, music, technology, visual art but also in its way of trying to, how you say this, which is resilient, you know, with everyday problem solving. I mean, the inventivity of the people; it always, I mean, amazed me. And it's important also to show the complexity of the continent.
00:12:47 Pam Ferris-Olson So when did you learn about Ganvié? What inspired you to create a series on that place?
00:12:54 Angèle Etoundi Essamba I learned about Ganvié, I went to Ganvié for the first time in 2012. I was actually invited. My friend, knowing how much of my work is centered on women recommended me. I remember she highly recommended me to visit Ganvié before I leave the country. And it was it was magic. It was very overwhelming, you know, seeing all these little boats, these little pirogues with women and children. And with colorful fabrics stretched as sails flowing with the wind. And this kind of, I mean, this image already in itself. Can you imagine a lake full of these tafereels [Dutch word for scene or tableau]? It was a very poetic image, that poetry already struck me.
00:14:10 And then I arrived in the village. And seeing the women, so many women, it actually looks like the village was carried by women. How elegant they were. How determined. How proud, the way they were standing on their boats. And just the vibrant energy also of the place. It was highly inspiring. And from that moment, I knew I have to return. I have to come back.
00:14:57 And a year later in 2013, because I needed to immerse myself completely in the lives of Ganvié. And I just wanted to take time to listen to the story of the women of water and to connect with them and to do some work, to show to the world how resilient these women are and to show to the world this community who is struggling so much. They are surrounded by water and paradoxically is lacking of drinking water and how the whole community works and the togetherness and all these elements needed to be shown to the world with honesty and respect.
00:16:09 Pam Ferris-Olson So how do you decide what kinds of pictures you want to take? Do you simply show up and start taking photographs or do you plan out in your mind what you want to take?
00:16:19 Angèle Etoundi Essamba The camera, you know, the camera for me, it's never a starting point, never. So when I come to a place, it's not with the camera. I first want to observe. I look, I listen, and I try to take in the energy of the place. You know, try to connect really with the people and only then I let the camera be part of the dialogue what is the story?
00:16:53 What is the story I want to tell? Why I'm here? I ask myself, why did I come all the way from the Netherlands to Ganvié, to here? To do what? What do I feel? What are these people showing me? Their gestures, their looks, their environment, how they connect with their environment. All these elements play an important role in how I work and how I engage with the people.
00:17:37 Pam Ferris-Olson So is there a photo or a set of photos that best express your connection with the village?
00:17:45 Angèle Etoundi Essamba I like very much the photos where the women are together, you know, because it really shows the spirit of the village, of the place. They are very much how they -- I mean, I was fascinated by how these women organize themselves in collectivity, you know, whether when they collect the water. You know, these invasive plants, and create different objects with it that they sell always as a collective. Or rather, when they dive to fish the oysters, they are often together. And this, I think it's incredible. It's beautiful, you know, because it helps them also in fighting, in fighting the adversity. In the adversity, it helps them. These kind of pictures also show how I myself, I connect with these women. And of course, they are much more pictures of the place but I like these pictures in particularly because they show their strength, their pride. You see how elegant they are. I mean, the women are really the pillars of Ganvié, you know, they are the one who manage to water.
00:19:36 Pam Ferris-Olson You make your home in Amsterdam, which is a city sited on canals in a country that is always challenged to remain free from flooding. Angèle have you ever thought of yourself as a woman of water?
00:19:53 Angèle Etoundi Essamba It's strange because I was born in Douala in Cameroon, which is in the Littoral, and my mother also originally from Douala, she belongs to the Sawa people. And the Sawa people are a coastal Bantu group who is known as the people of the sea.
[Interesting: Pam]. It's really, really incredible. And the Sawa people. This is actually also to highlight their connection with the ocean and with waterways. So this is where I come from, actually. And every year in my country in the city of Douala, every year you have a festival every first week of December. You have a festival called the Ngondo. And the Ngondo celebrates life around the sea and water with rituals, with dances, with different ceremonies. And this is to honor the spirit, the spirit of the sea. Yea, I do see myself as a woman of the water.
00:21:33 Pam Ferris-Olson So if someone were to take a picture of you that best represented who you are, where would the photo be taken and how would you pose yourself?
00:21:44 Angèle Etoundi Essamba A photo which is timeless, which feels both present and infinite and reflects the way I navigate life. Like I said, being adaptable, being aware and powerful.
00:22:05 Pam Ferris-Olson So at the end of each of my podcasts, I ask my guests to suggest how the audience can make a difference. Because most everyone has a phone with a camera, tell us how they can create an image that makes an impact.
00:22:19 Angèle Etoundi Essamba I think it's important always to know which story you want to tell. Try to look, of course, to look beyond what you see, beyond the immediacy of what you see, what you have here. So the story is very important. Focus on that, on what you want to tell.
And yeah, for me, a photo that actually speaks volumes, should capture a certain emotion, you know, and the context also, it's very important. It should be a photo which resonates, a photo with meaning, a photo with just a story.
00:23:10 Pam Ferris-Olson Well, I am extremely grateful to you for being on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast. I have really enjoyed talking with you and I urge everyone to view the video version of this podcast to see some of your photographs and they should check them out on your website. I’ll put the address in the show notes on womenmindthewater.com.
00:23:35 I’d like listeners to know that I’ve been speaking with Angèle Etoundi Essamba. Angèle trained at the Dutch School for Professional Photography. Today her captivating photos can be found in collections across the globe.
Angèle is the latest guest on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast. The series can be viewed on womenmindthewater.com and YouTube. A transcript is available on womenmindthewater.com and an audio-only version can be listened to on iTunes and Spotify. Wo(men) Mind the Water is grateful to Jaine Rice for the use of her song Women of Water. All rights for the Wo(men) Mind the Water name and logo belong to Pam Ferris-Olson. This is Pam Ferris-Olson.
00:00:24 Pam Ferris-Olson Today on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast on womenmindthewater.com, I'm speaking with Patrizia Zolano. Patrizia is a photographer who lives in Italy near the Adriatic Sea. On this podcast, we will focus on her series Acqua Alta a Venezia (High Water in Venice). It's a series inspired by the 2019 flood that caused great damage in Venice. Patrizia's photos of waterlogged books is a reminder that beautiful things can arise from adversity.
00:01:00 Pam Ferris-Olson Patrizia Zolano is the latest guest on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast on womenmindthewater.com. The podcast engages artists in conversation about their work and explores their connection with the water. Through their stories, Wo(men) Mind the Water hopes to inspire and encourage action to protect water and all the creatures that depend on it.
00:01:26 Pam Ferris-Olson I am most pleased to welcome Patrizia Zolano to the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast. Patrizia is an acclaimed Italian photographer. Her work invites viewers to look beyond the immediacy of the image. Her photographic series of books transformed by the 2019 flood of Venice depicts both destruction and transformation.
00:01:51 Welcome, Patricia. I guess I say, ‘Ciao.’ While your work focuses on more than water, natural light is a unifying feature in your photographs. I'm grateful that you joined me on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast to tell us something about yourself, Italy, and your work.
00:02:12 Pam Ferris-Olson While your work extends beyond the Acqua Alta a Venizia (High Water in Venice) series, I hope that you don't mind if we focus on that work as it speaks volumes about your photographic eye, as well as water and climate change. Let's begin by talking about Italy.
00:02:33 I don't know how many of our listeners have visited Italy, so I think it would be good if we began by having you tell us something about Italy. What fascinated you growing up in northern Italy near Lake Garda?
00:02:47 Patrizia Zelano Italians are often called a people of navigators, perhaps because the sea living without us, teaching us movement, nostalgia and the return, the endless search for horizon. Italy lives through the sea, a place where light meets water, and beauty with art architecture become an endless journey.
00:03:21 Pam Ferris-Olson Were you always focused on the detail of things or did that come when you took up photography?
00:03:30 Patrizia Zelano My attention to the detail has grown up with me. Photography came into my life like a sudden revelation. Photography gives me the freedom to explore the themes that truly move me and my own rhythm. It's a young form of art but its meanings are much deeper and more intellectual than people often think.
00:03:56 Pam Ferris-Olson I was surprised to discover that Venice is actually not a single place but a group of 118 islands lying in the bay of the Adriatic Sea. Water must be a constant threat to everything in Venice. How did you decide which books to take?
00:04:15 Patrizia Zelano The choice was not rational. I just saved what I could. Every book, no matter what it was about, felt important to me. I don't make any distinction. Each one carried its own wisdom. I chose to focus on books because they hold memory, knowledge, faith, and ideals.
Our culture is built on what is breathing in them. The book itself is a powerful symbol. During the flood, the books became a living image of our fragility of both environmental and cultural collapse.
00:05:10 Patrizia Zelano In my studio, under natural light, the books turned into sculptural objects. They reminded me of still life paintings from the 17th and 19th century, and also some contemporary artists. They were no longer damaged things but relics full of meaning. I could feel their tragic beauty, their power to evoke. Each wrinkled page looking like a relic, like an inner landscape. Through them, I created a kind of journey through art history, from ancient times to the contemporary world.
00:05:54 Patrizia Zelano The books were indeed very delicate because of the water damage and they tore easily. That fragility definitely caused some challenges but it also made the process of saving and transforming them into photographs even more meaningful. And actually, with all those damaged covers, spines, and pages that I heard story in truth.
00:06:29 Pam Ferris-Olson They were indeed beautiful. I was struck by the lighting and this sculptural elegance of what most people would just throw out. So thank you so much for doing that.
00:06:46 Patrizia Zelano Oh, good, thank you.
00:06:48 Pam Ferris-Olson So Italy is surrounded on three sides by water. Like Venice, Italy faces many challenges related to tides, storms, and plastic pollution. In your series Plastica Animistica, it appears life has been breathed into plastic material. How is this series meant to engage us in a conversation about the changing world?
00:07:12 Patrizia Zelano Yes, absolutely. Both the series are born from the same awareness that everything is in transformation in nature and within ourselves. In High Water [in Venice], I witnessed the power of water, overwhelming memory and beauty. In series Plastica Animistica I face another kind of turbulence, the wind and the fragile lightness of plastic, a material that belongs to our contemporary condition. Through this ephemeral installation, I try to transform what disturbed me into something contemplative, almost sacred.
00:07:58 Patrizia Zelano Both projects open a conversation about change, about how the stability of the world is also shaping the way we see, feel, and understand reality. I want to make it clear that Plastica Animistica is not a praise of plastic. It is rather an attempt to transcend an element I don't love, the wind, through a symbolic and poetic act.
00:08:33 Patrizia Zelano The installation I created with the light plastic becomes a ritual gesture of dialogue with nature, which is a concept in my work. Through art, I try to transform what is uncomfortable or unsettling into something that can become at least acceptable, even beautiful for a moment.
00:09:03 Pam Ferris-Olson Patricia, as we approach the end of the podcast, I thought you might offer advice on how to create an impactful photograph. If someone wanted to use their cell phone to make a statement about the environment, how do you suggest they go about creating an image?
00:09:21 Patrizia Zelano The power of a photographer, the photograph, doesn't lie in a technique but in the gaze. Even with the phone, if you look with awareness, you can create an image that transforms. We don't need to take beautiful photographs. We need to take meaningful ones. It is the act of seeing, not in the device that reveals a good shot.
00:09:52 Pam Ferris-Olson Thank you Patricia for being on the Wo(men) Mind the Water podcast. I'm really grateful that you're here in spite of your accident and the time you took, because you felt your English was not very good, to write the answers and read them for us. I will post a transcript so people can read if they have any questions.
00:10:15 Pam Ferris-Olson It has really been a pleasure to talk with you. I urge everyone to view the video version of this podcast to see a few of your photographs. You will be amazed how something that people might otherwise discard has actually become a thing of beauty and makes you think about antiquity and change and maybe hopefully influence you in the way that you see disasters or what might be viewed as a disaster.
00:10:49 Pam Ferris-Olson I will post the address of Patricia's site at womenmindthewater.com so you can investigate Patricia and her work more closely.
00:10:58 Patrizia Zelano Pam, thank you for the invitation and for this thoughtful conversation.
I hope it inspired the reflection and awareness and maybe also a trip to Italy. Bye. Thank you.
00:11:18 Pam Ferris-Olson I'd like to remind listeners that I've been speaking with Patrizia Zolano, an Italian photographer. Her series of photographs of waterlogged books goes beyond a portrait of damaged goods, and it is an engaging reminder that grace can rise from adversary.
00:11:36 Pam Ferris-Olson Patrizia is the latest guest on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast. The series can be viewed on womenmindthewater.com and on YouTube.
