Your recent project explores the African feminine as intrinsically linked to the land itself. What drew you to investigate femininity in this way? And in what ways do you think this perspective challenges or complements existing portrayals of women in African visual culture?

I’m not simply exploring these themes, they are lived experiences, stories I’ve witnessed, inherited, or carried. I’m often asked why the characters in my images are women? And my response is simple: I am a woman telling my own stories through my work. I come from a history and culture where women have played significant roles as leaders, nurturers, warriors, and spiritual figures. My upbringing was not rooted in the idea that women are secondary, but rather in the understanding that they are central to the fabric of society. This perspective naturally shapes my work and the way I choose to represent the feminine, as powerful, present, and essential.

Your art combines physical materials—photographic prints, paint, framing—with a minimalist and almost abstract aesthetic. How do you navigate the tension between materiality and abstraction?

I think of my process as layering time. The photograph is the first gesture, but it remains incomplete without touch. I often build sets composed of painted backdrops, symbolic objects, and carefully constructed environments where each element plays a role. Viewers sometimes ask if the final work is a painting, which speaks to the blurred line I navigate between photography and other forms. By painting over the backdrop and the characters, and at times obscuring parts of the image, I invite the viewer to look again, to feel rather than simply see. Abstraction allows me to express what cannot be explained such as grief, longing, spirit and to transform memory into myth, and image into experience.

Your photography proposes an expanded, reimagined view of Africa. What does this vision encompass, and which dominant narratives or assumptions do you hope to challenge or dismantle through your work?

Photography, for me, is far more than pressing a button, it’s a layered process rooted in questioning. In a world oversaturated with images, I often ask: What role does Africa play in this global visual dialogue? Narratives about Africa’s past, present, and future are too often shaped by narrow perspectives and hidden agendas. Having lived in many places, I’ve gained a vantage point that allows my work to be both universal and deeply rooted in Africa, challenging perceptions and offering viewers a new way of seeing. Whether through exhibitions, teaching, or organizing Africa Foto Fair, my goal has always been to educate through art. For real change to happen, education must be the foundation not only for Africans, but also for those outside the continent, who often encounter Africa through filtered or incomplete portrayals, far from the richness of its lived reality.