Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application Jon was a 1991 graduate of Greenfield Central High School and received a bachelor's degree in Pastoral Theology from World Harvest Bible College Jon served his country in the United States Army He worked as a real estate broker and was an associate pastor and chaplain at several churches within the community Jon was very active in his children's lives and activities He volunteered with the Hamilton County 4-H and was an honorary member of the Hamilton Heights FFA always willing to help others day or night.  Jon was preceded in death by his grandparents and Lawrence & Helen Alley; and his uncle Visitation will be from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm on Friday 2025 at Randall & Roberts Funeral Center Services will be held at 10:00 am on Saturday Burial will follow at Memorial Park Cemetery in Indianapolis.  Enter your phone number above to have directions sent via text This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors An essential resource focused on visual art from a Black perspective Culture Type explores the intersection of art Claudia "Aziza" Gibson-Hunter says: We have listed you in our newsletter as a publication that our artists need to read and follow XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong> Do you enjoy and value Culture Type? 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Culture Type earns a nominal commission when you access Bookshop via a link on this website and/or make a purchase from one of Culture Type's book lists on Bookshop. © 2013-2025 Culture Type Culture Type® is a registered trademark of Culture Type Designed by WPSHOWER throwing dialectical side-eye from beneath her world-historical fro The makeup and costumes are immaculate—in the first image Fosso wears genuine vestments from the papacy’s official tailor—but the real force of his photos lies in their author’s remarkable absorption as much a giveaway as his hypnotic stare and pronounced Cupid’s-bow lips it’s always a performance that I choose to undertake,” he once said in an interview “It’s not a subject or an object; it’s one more human being.” is only an aspect of his endlessly self-regarding yet surprisingly selfless practice whose pageantry is counterbalanced by more visceral reflections on the body’s vulnerability amid war and exile “Tati—Le chef qui a vendu l’Afrique aux colons (The Chief Who Sold Africa to the Colonists),” 1997.“Tati—La femme américaine libérée des années 70 (The Liberated American Woman of the 1970s),” 1997.Fosso has told various stories about becoming his own muse One centers on the absence of photos from his childhood in Cameroon where he was born to a Nigerian Igbo family A congenital anomaly left him partly paralyzed from birth; his parents where he lived with an uncle and found work as a photographer’s apprentice shooting his first self-portraits with the leftover film He posed in flamboyant outfits inspired by musicians like James Brown and the highlife star Nico Mbarga—one early portrait shows him flaunting fringed pants and enormous platform shoes—and mailed the results as a reassurance to anxious relatives back home Another motivation was immortalizing his youth Do you want to reach heaven?’ ” he recalled of the time but he quickly ran up against curators’ preference for his early black-and-white portraits—fraught with nostalgia for the heady independence years—over more recent full-color experiments A commission from the French retailer Tati gave him an opportunity to break free Fosso débuted a series of self-portraits in outfits from the store’s clothing line and a “Liberated American Woman of the 1970s.” Ironically collaborating with a business afforded him a new degree of aesthetic autonomy; once seen as a chronicler of a particular time and place he reinvented himself as a shape-shifting Everyman “African Spirits—Muhammad Ali,” 2008.“African Spirits—Tommie Smith,” 2008.“African Spirits—Haile Selassie,” 2008.“African Spirits—Patrice Lumumba,” 2008.Many critics pegged Fosso as a practitioner of subversive pastiche, often likening him to Cindy Sherman But his subsequent work has been as much about reliving history as they are about interrogating received images His series “African Spirits” (2008) restaged fourteen iconic portraits—among them Muhammad Ali as St Sebastian on the cover of Esquire and Patrice Lumumba shortly before his assassination in Congo—in a via crucis of twentieth-century Black liberation movements Okeke-Agulu has compared Fosso’s portraits to ritual masking traditions Their meme-like interloping also anticipates the participatory critique of current events on platforms like Instagram and TikTok where armies of amateur Fossos use front-facing cameras to inscribe themselves in history These reparative restagings have only gained resonance in an era keen on redressing the exclusions of the archive In one photo from his 2013 series “ALLONZENFANS,” Fosso poses as a Senegalese rifleman who fought for France in the Second World War He wears a vintage uniform borrowed from a museum the small remote that he uses to trigger his camera—a subtle celebration of art’s triumph over violence “ALLONZENFANS,” 2013.“ALLONZENFANS,” 2013.In the early twenty-tens Fosso’s studio in Bangui was destroyed by vandals amid a civil war in the Central African Republic wrecking part of his archive and relocating his work to Nigeria and France He reflected on the misfortune in “SIXSIXSIX,” a series of six hundred and sixty-six mugshot-style Polaroids taken over three months in Paris (They appear in the exhibition as a digital slide show.) Fosso poses shirtless and without makeup as though displacement has permanently shorn him of his disguises His tiny shifts in expression—wandering eyes and ruminative looks that yield to flashes of slyness and dreaming—evoke a capacity for renewal as kaleidoscopic as his elaborately costumed tableaux “I always believed that my life would be pushed aside by other people’s but photography has given me a second life,” Fosso has said “70’s Lifestyle,” 1976-77.New Yorker FavoritesA long-ago crime, suddenly remembered A limousine driver watches her passengers transform The day Muhammad Ali punched me What is it like to be keenly intelligent but deeply alienated from simple emotions? Temple Grandin knows The harsh realm of “gentle parenting.”  Retirement the Margaritaville way Fiction by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Thank You for the Light.”  Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker. This article was originally published in issue #7892 of British Journal of Photography. As a free gift to our community during the coronavirus lockdown, we are offering it as a free digital edition here. Samuel Fosso was only 13 years old when he started his own photography studio in Bangui the capital of the Central African Republic he had carried out a five-month-long apprenticeship with a local photographer Acknowledging his nephew’s precocious talent bought him a large camera in Cameroon and agreed to open a photography studio for him to reflect how the Central African Republic had gained independence from France in 1960 Besides photographing families and friends and taking people’s passport photos he would finish off a Kodak roll by taking staged self-portraits I used the last two or three for my own account and I benefited from that to make my own works,” says Fosso when we meet at the home of his long-standing agent There were two other reasons why Fosso became impassioned about photography One was that he desperately wanted to send photographs of himself to his grandmother in Nigeria I would send one picture to my grandmother to reassure her that everything was going well for me and keep one for myself,” Fosso says The other reason is linked to his early infancy His mother took him to Nigeria – where his grandfather was a ‘native doctor’ He remained there with his grandparents during the Biafran War his uncle collected him and the pair returned to Cameroon for one year before moving to Bangui Fosso had missed out on the tradition of being photographed as a three-month-old baby due to his health condition. In an interview with the late Okwui Enwezor (the influential Nigerian-born curator, for a forthcoming Steidl monographic book, Samuel Fosso: Autoportrait) Fosso recounts: “Even though my mother believed I was a normal child there was still no photograph commissioned because my father did not see the need to waste money on a paralysed child when you ask me why I privilege my self-portraits I believe the answer is rooted in the condition of my life and the meaning of self-representation.” in the chapter titled ‘Reclaiming the Black Body’ slim-framed Fosso striking poses in front of theatrical backdrops and wearing elegant outfits made by a local tailor with fabrics he had purchased dark flared trousers and patterned jacket – is bowing slightly as if imagining that he is about to meet someone or he dons tasselled trousers and high-heeled boots Fosso was becoming his own director and character How Fosso’s work was discovered is thanks to Bernard Descamps, co-founder of the first edition of the Rencontres de Bamako Descamps was looking for photographers he could exhibit in Bamako and Fosso entrusted Descamps to take the negatives back to Paris and his work was accepted for the Rencontres de Bamako’s inaugural edition as well as the eminent Malian photographers Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé to make a group of self-portraits recreating the African photo-studio environment Upon learning that Keïta and Sidibé had already made their pictures in black-and-white Fosso asked if he could make his in colour His goal was to take a new direction in his work and capture a different mood from the images associated with African photography questions the role of African chiefs in the slave trade Fosso also transforms himself into a liberated woman a bourgeois woman in a sequinned top holding a white fur “People asked if I was homosexual and why I wanted to disguise myself as a woman; wearing women’s clothes was taboo,” he replies Now people are asking why I wanted to do it I thought of doing something about how black Americans were liberated in the 1960s and 70s political figures that had fought for black civil rights became more precise in his black-and-white series produced in Patras’ former gallery in Paris each photograph is based on a specific image of one of Fosso’s heroes that he faithfully reinterpreted casting himself as a different character each time This involved creating elaborate backdrops hiring costumes and imitating facial expressions Fosso interprets Martin Luther King Jr’s mugshot following King’s arrest in Alabama in 1956 for his leadership role in the Montgomery bus boycott Others see him assuming the identities of African-Americans such as Muhammad Ali and the political activist Angela Davis (above) who co-founded the Négritude movement to restore the cultural identity of black Africans in which Fosso reflects upon how France conscripted men from its West African colonies to fight in the First and Second World Wars Fosso was awarded the Infinity Art Award 2018 from the International Centre of Photography in New York one enlarged image from the series was presented alongside contact sheets comprising dozens of shots of Fosso enacting the Pope praying or holding the papal ferula while standing on a meteorite – an evident pun on Maurizio Cattelan’s sculpture an effigy of Pope John Paul II being crushed by a meteorite The series alludes to Fosso’s hope that one day the Catholic Church will have a black pope “I asked myself why there has never been a black pope but now there’s been a Polish pope [John Paul II] a German pope [Benedict XVI] and now a pope from South America [Francis] so perhaps one day there’ll be a black pope,” Fosso says Fosso’s series, SixSixSix (2015) – presented at the National Portrait Gallery in 2017 – is the subject of a second new Steidl book due later this year two or three times a day in front of a crimson backdrop This culminated in 666 unique Polaroid images that capture Fosso’s varying emotional states The classical framing of each self-portrait depicting Fosso’s face and shoulders his body almost merging into the background What differs is the emanating mood and facial expression The title of the series referring to the evil connotation of the figure 666 in the Bible the work was made partly in response to the Central African Republic’s civil war from 2012-2014 studio and photography accessories were completely destroyed,” laments Fosso who eventually managed to escape the violence and catch a flight to France as he had a French passport Although his archive has been preserved by Patras and the negatives of his series are with Griffin Editions in New York Fosso lost some of his early colour photographs when his studio was set alight “Unhappiness has often struck my path – illness and war in my childhood he has chosen to address some of these issues in his work to become an internationally renowned artist passed away peacefully surrounded by family on Monday at GlenOaks Care Center in New London after a 3 1/2 year battle with brain cancer the daughter of Dean and Helen (Nelson) Fosso Kelly grew up on farms near Raymond and Pennock allowing her to attend both Raymond schools and Willmar High School where she was voted friendliest classmate of her 1985 graduating class Following her brain tumor diagnosis in 2018 Kelly continued to find her calling by writing three books with the use of only a right hand “There’s Something Going on Upstairs” “There’s Something Going on in the Kitchen” and “There’s Something Going on at the Farm.” Kelly grew passionate about her disease by speaking at many long-term care facilities Initially being a caregiver to her husband Bob and Kelly’s journey has been highlighted within Mayo Clinic and numerous other local and national publications She is survived by her loving and caregiver husband of 11 years Lonnie (Penny) Fosso and Ryan (Sarah) Fosso; sisters- in-law Roxie (Tim) Ross and Linda (Bill) Davis; stepchildren Lauren (Andrew) Blaisdell and Danny Rodenberg; bonus grandchildren Paxton and Cecilia Blaisdell; and nieces and nephews Also surviving are her aunts and uncles: Lois Nelson She was preceded in death by her grandparents Kenny Nelson and Ronnie Nelson; and nephew CentraCare Rice Hospice301 Becker Ave. SW, Willmar MN 56201Tel: 1-320-235-4543Web: https://ricehealthfdn.ejoinme.org/MyPages/RiceHospiceDonationPage/tabid/722614/Default.aspx CaringBridgePO Box 6032, Albert Lea MN 56007Tel: 1-651-789-2300Email: CustomerCare@CaringBridge.orgWeb: https://www.caringbridge.org/give?split=1100 SaveSave this storySaveWhy do artists create self portraits For the French-Cameroonian photographer Samuel Fosso it goes beyond documenting what he looked like at a given time; self-portraiture is a means of self representation; of capturing different aspects of his personality so he feels truly seen It is commonplace in West Africa to commission photographs of a baby at around three months old Fosso suffered from a partial paralysis of the lower limbs and his mother “saw it as a waste of money to commission a photograph of a disabled child.” He describes photography as “a form of therapy that has enabled me to bring about a sense of self and tell the world that I exist Self portraits give me the opportunity to engage with my own biography.” This month the first comprehensive survey of Fosso’s work, Sam Fosso, opened at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) in Paris The show brings together over 300 prints from all the major series the 59-year-old has taken throughout his half-century-spanning career Fosso relishes in the fashions of the time: high waisted flares tight fitting shirts with oversized collars giant sunglasses and platform heeled boots Fosso earned a living by photographing everything from weddings and baptisms to New Year’s celebrations and identity card photos using whatever film was left to take his self portraits He would send some of them to his grandmother in Nigeria to let her know he was safe and well Autoportrait traces how over the years Fosso expanded his self-portrait practice into embodiments of leaders of the pan-African liberation and Civil Rights movements (Nelson Mandela and Mohamed Ali among them) spiritual and religious figureheads from both Animist and Catholic cultures and soldiers from France’s African colonies who were enlisted to fight in the First and Second World Wars “One unifying theme behind all my self portraits is the question around power,” he explains “I want to express the idea that a person who is not free is not alive.” Fashion plays a pivotal role in Fosso establishing his multitude of characters and in turn the industry has looked to him including a 1999 shoot for the fall/winter issue of Vogue “Clothes help me tell the character's story and share their own emotions,” he says the French discount retailer Tati asked Fosso along with Malian studio photography pioneers Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta to recreate their studios inside the store and take pictures of customers Fosso proposed a more original project: to shoot a new series of colour self-portraits styled in Tati clothes and accessories Fosso is dressed in a matching trousers and jacket cut from vibrant patchwork “If my concept requires me to play a female character I am not trying to create a queer picture,” he says he was sent to live with his grandparents in Nigeria from a young age The hope was that his grandfather – a traditional doctor and village chief in his Igbo community of Afikpo – would be able to cure his paralysis Fosso survived the Biafran War which claimed the lives of over a million people between 1967-1970 with his uncle who helped him set-up his first studio at the age of just 13 “Africa was arbitrarily divided into countries by European colonialists,” he says “I wanted my studio to reflect my desire to create a sense of pan-African unity and identity.” Fosso’s 2008 series African Spirits pays tribute to 14 major figures of African history and the diaspora who were central to cultivating the sense of unity and identity he speaks of Self-portraits of him personifying the likes of Angela Davis and Senegal’s first president Léopold Sédar Senghor are deliberately not labelled “I am particularly interested in the role slavery has played in the history of Africa,” Fosso explains “Slavery is the source of questions around liberation Historically political debates unfortunately have not been between Black and white people White people have imposed segregation and decided between themselves when to end it I don’t see the likes of Davis or King as political figures He is at once highlighting the absence of Black voices in the papacy to date and how central those voices will be to its survival All the while Fosso is taking his photographs he is constantly thinking about how the images will live beyond their creation “I don’t see myself doing this work for my own personal aggrandizement,” he writes in the exhibition catalogue “I do it to enter a dialogue with the public I am first and foremost interested in the viewer’s response to my ideas and only when I have presented the work in public do I lose my shyness and fear.” He concludes: “It is then that I become proud of what I have accomplished and I know that my communication is good.” Samuel Fosso is at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) in Paris until 13 March 2022. Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Fosso is a well-known African artist whose self-portraits explore new realms of gender-bending theatricality and celebrate cultural figures and leaders in the Civil Rights and African independence movements Fosso began operating a photography studio in Nigeria that had a pair of platform boots–talons dames–similar to the ones worn by the popular Nigerian musician Prince Nico Mbarga on the cover of his record albums as well as other custom-made props and costumes in his series of photographs from the 1970s drawing inspiration from African-American magazine cover girls In self-portraits where he portrays famous Black people of the late nineties like Patrice Lumumba or Miles Davis Samuel Fosso’s work has been internationally exhibited including at Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie He earned First Prize in the African Photography Encounters and Dak’Art–Biennale de l’art Africain Contemporain as well as the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds award Bunting comes to Bates from Princeton University where she is senior associate director of athletics for external relations With more than two decades of leadership experience in collegiate athletics Bunting has a track record of strategic innovation A selection of recent mentions of Bates faculty in the news including a glowing review of a exhibition at the college' Immersive Media Studio and faculty commentaries on the importance of rural education the expanding implications of AI in education how homelessness impairs people's sense of autonomy and the thrill of sharing big ideas at this year's summit — and how Bates students show up for one another Samuel Fosso brandishes his physique like a powerful instrument, with which he reckons with diaspora and postcolonial identity. The French-Cameroonian photographer’s eponymous exhibition at Huis Marseille, on show until March 2023, is a continuation of the one that ran from autumn 2021 at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris The new iteration retains the retrospective aspect of Fosso’s robust five-decade career but “bringing the same images to a new place obviously always brings its share of the unknown His work will fill the entirety of the Amsterdam museum with primarily large format prints: producing visuals at this scale accentuates the details he carefully envisions the Princeton University Art Museum presents Samuel Fosso: Affirmative Acts on view in downtown Princeton until January 2023 in which Sealy writes: “Our understanding of Africa is implicitly linked to the way we have been invited to see Africa” qualifying that this lens has mostly been “a meaningless set of contradictions Fosso is one of the actors whose work has helped shift the marginalised view imposed by the European gaze shifting outside perceptions from within the territory The selection of over 200 photos at Huis Marseille “as exhaustive as possible by selecting what best embodied each period of my work,” Fosso states “It was important to cover the different aspects of my journey: each series of self-portraits is represented and there is also a good overview of my work as a studio portraitist.” He notes that the period from the 70s was the hardest to extract a selection from: “At that time I didn’t yet consider myself an artist; retaining the best of this continuous flow was a very interesting challenge.”  Fosso has also dabbled in collaborative endeavours he shot a 10-image autumn/winter editorial for Vogue Hommes International in his Bangui studio he featured in an issue of A Magazine Curated By helmed by menswear designer Grace Wales Bonner The motivational thrust for these is underpinned by “un goût profond pour la mode” – “a deep love of fashion” – something that has been true for him ever since adolescence For his contemporary collaboration with Wales Bonner who situates her aesthetic as “European heritage with an Afro Atlantic spirit” Fosso fondly praised the dapper styling: “I wore the outfits proposed as naturally as I would have in any series.” Fosso’s career and visibility grew over decades until he weathered the unthinkable in 2014: the destruction of his house and the looting of his equipment and archives This “constituted a trauma from which I still have not recovered,” he recalls the violence of the event and the atrocities of the civil war [Biafran War] plunged me into a deep depression for which I had to be treated and whose consequences I still suffer today.” After this excruciating experience he was forced to reinvent himself photographers and international organisations helped him recover the bulk of his negatives saying: “My creativity has always been intimately linked to what I have experienced and I would say that the series SIXSIXSIX reflects the inspiration that I draw from the worst times of my life.” These many hundreds of self-portrait Polaroids were made to represent the ecstatic and excruciating range life brings to the surface “After these wars and all the hardships I have suffered,” Fosso says and photography helps me to continue on this path.” Asked if he considers his portraits to have a performative aspect given his preponderance for costumes Fosso is quick to reframe the manner in which he sees his work “I want to clarify that I don’t do theatre: I approach my work in an authentic way What I mean by that is that I’m not ‘acting’ whose story I want to tell for the duration of a shot but the ‘staging’ aspect is not what I find most essential… When I pose in front of the lens I really am this person that I embody.” He negotiates between functioning as a conduit and relaying something autobiographical: “My body is effectively an intermediary I am always ‘behind’ the subject,” Fosso states what we see there is the subject himself – the one whose story I tell The blurring of the line between ‘self’ and ‘other’ even further is facilitated by the sartorialism shaping Fosso’s aesthetic “I decide very meticulously on each detail of clothing so that it better reflects the story I want to tell,” he says But he adds: “I don’t have a fetishistic relationship to the clothes I use during the shots the costumes are rented or lent from specialised shops for the duration of the series” He cites the military costumes of his series ALLONZENFANS (2013) and the accessories for his 2003 series Le Rêve de Mon Grand-père as examples of stretching his personhood and imagination through donning a soldier’s uniform or a shaman’s robes The exception to this act of ‘borrowing’ was the elegant made-to-measure cream-coloured garment he had fashioned by Gammarelli – the official tailor of the Pope operational since 1798 – for his 2017 series Black Pope the clothes he sported in his 70s-era series of debut studio self-portraits were his own: he bought them based upon what was trendy at the time among the youth in Bangui (which was heavily influenced by the stylishly dressed iconic musicians of the epoch) Fosso describes his current photographic practice as being prefaced by catching up on current events and news His photographic act is “to bear witness to the past for current and future generations to fill in the gaps in the communal narrative.” He intends to transcend the “power games” of politics “My work is more like that of a historian,” he insists “I speak about history.” After committing to a theme when something stays with him décor; he starts doing research and visiting archives to compare and contrast possible aesthetics and styles examining different ‘realities’ from which to create his own mise-en-scène Asked if he would ever continue his signature 2008 African Spirits series with a new set of icons – having already spotlighted Angela Davis and other prominent figures from 20th-century Black liberation movements with his personal twist – he admits: “It’s funny that you ask me that question because I’m thinking of ways to complete the series.” He remains mum about further details: “I never talk about my projects in progress… I don’t like to disclose my series in advance.” Although deeply tethered to his origins Fosso does not feel he folds into a specific community or territory describing his approach as fundamentally global: “I can talk about China Black representation is unquestionably important to Fosso but he gravitates towards a more expansive view of what a representational paradigm can encompass conceptually I would like – in a utopian way – for the cultural sector and for humanity to rise above these questions,” he says “Each person has both so many indefinable particularities and universal aspects Samuelfosso.com Samuel Fosso is on show at Huis Marseille from 10 December 2022 to 12 March 2023 The exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris) and the Walther Collection (Neu-Ulm with the support from the Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne (Switzerland) Sarah Moroz is a Franco-American journalist and translator based in Paris Her words have been published in the International New York Times Filippo Bartolotta delves into how Terenzuola’s Fosso di Corsano offers an unusually “serious” expression of Vermentino by straddling the terroirs of Liguria and Tuscany There’s some wines one has been having a longer relationship than others and Terenzuola Vermentino Fosso di Corsano is one of them Maybe because it’s a wine born in Fosdinovo the mystical border region of Lunigiana which blurs the boundaries between Tuscany and Liguria leaving the travellers always uncertain whether his foot steps are walking in one or the other region Or it is maybe because 15 years ago nobody really cared about Vermentino as a “serious” wine and I felt Terenzuola’s was a delicious outcast: an underdog variety emphasising the mineral and iodine traits derived from the sandy and schisty soil overlooking the Ligurian sea but banking on the skeleton of the Tuscan geological matrix While enjoying this wine after a long day of hiking on these beautiful and forgotten seaside mountain I remember thinking how this vibrant juice wasn’t just the perfect companion with my friends and the local testaroli pasta al pesto Fosso di Corsano Vermentino Colli di Luni is the essence of the Ligurian sea breeze with that iodine a hyper-focused citrus fruit character with wild fennel and dry Mediterranean herbs Ivan Giuliani is now the owner of 22 hectares of vines which stretch from the Colli di Luni towards the Candia hills right under the long shade of the (Michelangelo’s) marble caves of Massa and Carrara all the way to the heroical terraces of Cinque Terre Fosso di Corsano Vermentino comes from 5ha split in 16 parcels located between 250 and 450 metres above sea level and the must goes though a short cold maceration before fermentation in steel tanks where it spends 7-8 months on its fine lees Andriano and Terlan: taking Alto Adige’s white wines to new heights We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings we will not be able to save your preferences This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again The journey’s centerpiece is a fact-finding video that uncovers each state’s hidden treasures and the adventurers said that aviation will be the device that conveys those highlights Fosso and Hagan promise personal interaction to those coming along for a virtual ride as the two discover and document their adventures They have ambitious technology plans for en route livestreams and early access to videos for those supporting their two-year mission Despite the high-tech gadgets aboard N2771C Fosso and Hagan used an old-fashioned cork board to line up a zigzag route that crisscrosses the United States as a visual reminder of their mission will fly while Hagan handles four different cameras they have hanging from the front “The point is for you guys—the viewers—to feel like you’ve been there through us ‘Let’s show the best of each state and use aviation as a tool to do this amazing experience,’” he continued One of the goals is to influence youth who might not realize they could have an interest in aviation AOPA’s You Can Fly initiatives also recognize the importance of building the pilot community through programs that include high school learning curriculum and other pilot-support mechanisms that make flying safe “I think that if younger people want to stare at their iPad all day we might as well get them infected with aviation because it can take you somewhere that nothing else can,” Fosso told AOPA Fosso honed his aviation maintenance skills on 71Charlie which was fished out of a lake and stored for 40 years before he bought the taildragger when he was 15 He used “every single penny” he earned from summer jobs washing cars and airplanes Fosso confided that he wasn’t the best student and often needed additional help with his classes He said high school “really wasn’t speaking to me at all” until he discovered aviation “at the right time” in his life he soloed at age 16 and has never looked back He shined under tutelage from his mentor and IA Mac McGugan where the Cessna was his classroom and Mac was his teacher Fosso earned his A&P certificate by meticulously cleaning “I think having someone believe in me sparked an interest,” he added “Everything I didn’t learn in algebra The vintage aircraft now sports a rebuilt 180-horsepower Lycoming IO-360 engine which replaced a six-cylinder 145-hp Continental A pair of Cessna 175 wings holds additional fuel to supply the thirstier powerplant He said the project is not just an extended cross-country trip the likes of which have been documented by countless aviators since the mid 1920s “The point is not to just dip my toe in each state The point of AdventureAbove is to explore each state and make them available to others,” he added “The Lower 48 is going to take a year.” He encouraged aviation enthusiasts who spot the Cessna “not to be so shy just come up and talk to us,” especially if they have tips for local hot spots “We’ll get the East Coast knocked out rush back over to Oshkosh [for 2018 EAA AirVenture] and then head further West to the High Sierras dodging winter and chasing summer,” explained Fosso The tour stops in his home state before jumping to Alaska and then Hawaii Fosso is elusive when pressed for plans about crossing the Pacific Ocean but hinted about “an element that is really cool but it’s not set in stone and we have two years to get there.” If successful the couple will join 27 percent of Aviation eBrief respondents who have visited 26 to 50 U.S “Either way we’re just gonna do it and see what happens,” he said “Everyone thinks we're nuts but that’s OK.” AdventureAbove's Kyle Fosso and Samantha Sky Hagan talk about how they are preparing for their epic cross-country trip during an appearance on the AOPA Hangar Talk podcast Join Hangar Talk twice a month to hear from other special guests and stay up to date on the general aviation news others are talking about 800.872.2672 AOPA is so passionate about supporting flight schools that we're offering you free countertop displays filled with our annual special issue This beginning pilots' resource guide explains what you can expect from your introductory flight through initial training—and how to turn your dream of flying into reality Get instant access to Flight Training's special issue titled You Can Fly: Your Path to Become a Pilot This beginning pilots' resource guide explains what you can expect from your introductory flight through initial training— and how to turn your dream of flying into reality Please review AOPA’s privacy policy to learn more about how your information is used Courtesy of D’Angelo Lovell Williams and MACK Study for a soldier at rest © Collier Schorr and MACK It is hot in the photographs composing River’s Dream Bees swarm across a watermelon’s flesh while a snake cools itself and children mill about on barren swathes of land A sluggishness hangs thick and heavy as we meander through shadowy clearings and deserted alleyways and streets rescuing the weather-beaten gravestones they threaten to strangle This is the second printing of River’s Dream (the Blue Edition) The photographs’ “depths are all on the surface,” writes Joy Williams in one of the two new essays featured in the book (the other is by Natasha Tretheway) engulfing us in the sticky heat of the curious world they depict artfully translating the hum of northern Floridian life onto the printed page “I wanted to capture a town,” writes Collier Schorr in the short text that concludes her latest photobook August: a poetic yet weighty study of the small German city of Schwäbisch Gmünd The artist took the Polaroids that compose the publication more than two decades ago while visiting the German metropolis compelled to document its history and present in the aftermath of World War Two “I arrived in Germany while the American army occupied not only the country but the town I was living in,” she explains “As an American Jew I felt immense permission to engage in the joint history of Jews and Germans I felt both a documentarian like August Sander and a war photographer from any time period.”  reference Germany’s Nazi past with Schorr occasionally including overt Nazi iconography in the staged images An extensive list of credits reveal the carefully thought-out concepts behind every frame The publication is the third volume in a series of books set in southern Germany titled Forests and Fields (Wald und Wiesen) following Neighbors/Nachbarn (2006) and Blumen (2010) Schorr dedicates this specific book to the state of Palestine As the artist writes: “And the hopes that it can be recognised and that ghosts of people displaced as a result of racist and antisemitic wars can rest with survivors in all lands.” “There are devastating secrets we inherit and leave to our descendants over generations the ones we cannot or do not want to remember but which are stuck deep inside our emotional memory,” writes Finnish photographer Aija Svensson we continue to build on rotten grounds and – intentionally or unintentionally – slowly start creating and accumulating our own secrets.” Svensson’s intimate series Do not Cover addresses this experience The melancholic publication delves into the multi-layered nature of trauma Colour images filled with silence and loneliness compose the book: the sharp outline of vertebrae visible beneath mottled skin; a man crashing back into water surrounded by a halo of spray; an old woman sleeping in a darkened room and the point from which the photographer began to reconnect “with a past where many questions are left unanswered and deeds unjustified,” as the artist and curator Rebecca Simons articulates it we are afforded little clarity about Svensson’s history her work incites us to reflect on our own inherited traumas and buried experiences Despite being a central figure in 21st-century photography Cameroon-born Nigerian photographer Samuel Fosso’s path to the medium was not clear-cut Fosso suffered from paralysis of the arms and legs during early infancy Fosso was raised by his grandparents and then his uncle Fosso persuaded the owner of a photo studio in Bangui to take him on as an apprentice His childhood paralysis had meant Fosso was not “deemed worthy” of being photographed during his infancy And the artist attributes his life-long exploration of self-portraiture as stemming from that reality Samuel Fosso: Photofile charts the photographer’s artistic development alongside his biography It is a self-proclaimed “mini-monograph” that delves into how Fosso who started out as a commercial photographer carved out a practice characterised by his experimental self-portraits which he began as a strictly personal endeavour An introductory essay guides us through his life and work while the remainder of the publication showcases images from several significant series the photographs exhibit Fosso’s ability to innovate while remaining true to the distinctive self-portraiture that underscores his work “Their work is not diaristic but provides a glimpse of an interiority that many photographers struggle with as they try hurriedly to execute in a time of immense optics,” writes the visual artist Tiona Nekkia McClodden of D’Angelo Lovell Williams’ work is rooted in the artist’s life experiences and ongoing interrogation of their own perspectives the work is not documentary in the traditional sense of the term but not necessarily seeing it as documentary And I didn’t necessarily think about how other people related to it.”  Williams  interrogates myriad themes embedded in the complexities of contemporary life while also exploring collective histories and Black ancestral practices with Williams’ often distorting figures through subtle elements: hands reaching from beyond the frame “ I wanted to challenge and be challenged in what I produced as a Black gay person or a queer person,” he explains “[….] I also think about people who came before me who never got to do what I do or never got to experience something that I do.” Hannah Abel-Hirsch joined British Journal of Photography in 2017 she was an Editorial Assistant at Magnum Photos and a Studio Assistant for Susan Meiselas and Mary Ellen Mark in New York she completed a BA in History of Art at University College London Her words have also appeared on Magnum Photos This year’s must-see shows range from a Nordic Pavilion exploring transgender spaces to a compelling Lebanese project confronting the realities of ecocide Frieze returns to The Shed in May with more than 65 of the world’s leading contemporary art galleries and the acclaimed Focus section led by Lumi Tan The artist’s large-scale exhibition at the Walther Collection displays his skill for impersonation and adds depth to the genre of self-portraiture The title of Samuel Fosso’s travelling retrospective has more basis in fact than viewers might initially expect Nigerian artist’s monumental series ‘SIXSIXSIX’ comprises no less than 666 Polaroid self-portraits taken in his Paris studio between October and November 2015 Exhibited at The Walther Collection as a video slideshow the series disrupts the mundane archetype of ID-style photographs through subtle changes of expression in each frame indicative of a life marked by death and disruption renders this work a fitting – even necessary – introduction to Fosso’s five-decade career A pronounced self-reliance is evident in Fosso’s early self-portrait series ‘70’s Lifestyle’ (1975–78) which was shot entirely at the Bangui-based studio he opened aged just 13 after the deaths of both his mother and his grandfather compelled him to move to the Central African Republic where he worked with his uncle as a shoemaker before discovering photography Fosso worked on commercial projects at Studio Photo National by day – a selection of his traditional family portraits is also on display – and posed in front of his own camera by night lighting and composition needed to create vivid black and white portraits inspired by imported pop-culture magazines he poses with palpable pride in front of his aptly renamed Studio Photo Genteel from which he worked commercially in Bangui for the next decade enactment and allusion are stylistic devices employed across the exhibition which features about 130 individual works from nine series ‘Emperor of Africa’ (2013) – in which Fosso referencing the fraught relations between China and a number of African nations over the last two decades impersonates former chairman Mao Zedong – comfortably shares space with his portrayals of West African Tirailleurs who fought for France in both World Wars (‘ALLONZENFANS’ While the performative aspect of the artist’s work often predominates Fosso’s figures also convey a documentary intention that bears witness to the public – and private – repercussions of migration With the series ‘Memoire d’un Ami’ (Memory of a Friend Fosso returns to a recurring motif in his life: grief The photographs re-enact the night in June 1997 when his neighbour looking into a hand-held mirror that reflects his horrified gaze as the immensity of the tragedy dawns on him one of the three images exhibited from the series ‘Black Pope’ (2017) shows Fosso dressed as pontiff in full profile agreed to embroider ‘Black Pope’ inside the gown and shoes in an allusion to Maurizio Cattelan’s La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour a hyper-realistic sculpture of Pope John Paul II after being struck down by an asteroid Rather than invoking Cattelan to depict his own version of an antipope told me at the exhibition opening that he would welcome the election of a Black pope in his lifetime Adding incredible contextual and technical depth to the genre of self-portraiture Fosso’s oeuvre bears witness not only to larger post-colonial histories but to the remarkable story of his own life Samuel Fosso’s ‘The Man with a Thousand Faces’ is on view at The Walther Collection Eric Otieno Sumba is a writer and editor at Haus der Kulturen der Welt His work has been featured in publications including Camera Austria memory and tedium to inspect the hidden realities behind everyday life From Monica Bonvicini’s sculptural representations of female agency to Phung-Tien Phan’s dinosaurs that prod at consumer culture, here’s what to see this Gallery Weekend Berlin At Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen the artist tracks what safety obscures – from state violence to the silence of forgotten stories a group show studies the variations and chance connections that form our worldview the artist’s unsettling sculptures are replete with religious imagery the artist’s silk canvases reimagine painting as a porous and philosophical practice the artist’s largest exhibition yet features miraculous paintings and drawings that will leave you feeling uplifted  a show traces how the artist’s soak-stain canvases reshaped abstraction an expansive group show highlights precarity as a permanent condition an expansive group show offers a distinctly Northern European lens on the climate crisis The artist's murals at Galerie Chantal Crousel repurpose elements of cloud vistas and early Renaissance frescoes ‘Art Is Not Rest’ celebrates a singular artist who refused to be categorized the artist’s new video reaffirms their identity outside of socialized norms and constructs reintroduces audiences to one of Austria's most provocative feminist artists © FRIEZE 2025 Cookie Settings | Do Not Sell My Personal Information Paris.Save this storySaveSave this storySave[13 April 1978] taking pictures of himself isn’t about vanity—it’s a way to explore issues of gender the Nigerian artist displays his most striking and timely pieces—ones that ring particularly relevant during the Black Lives Matter movement Autoportrait is Fosso’s first comprehensive photo collection featuring images of him inhabiting African and African American characters Those he chooses to pay tribute to include Angela Davis who has been working as a photographer since he was 13 years old there are no photos of him as a child and he made it his life’s work and inspiration to express himself through photos he took himself In an interview with The British Journal of Photography Fosso addresses the question of his artistic choices—“When you ask me why I privilege my self-portraits Looking for more? Sign up for our daily newsletter and never miss a story. Samuel Fosso scoops £30,000 award for performative self-portraits of historical figures including Angela Davis and Mao Zedong One of Africa’s most important living photographers and contemporary artists, who photographs himself in the style of leading historical figures including Martin Luther King and Angela Davis, has won the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation prize 2023. The Cameroonian-born Nigerian photographer Samuel Fosso was awarded the £30,000 prize – one of the most prestigious in the industry – at the Photographers’ Gallery in London on Thursday. Read moreThe award was in recognition of Fosso’s retrospective exhibition, Samuel Fosso, at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, which traced a career spanning almost 50 years. Shoair Mavlian, the director of the Photographers’ Gallery and chair of the Deutsche Börse jury, praised Fosso’s work for creating “an extraordinary platform for Black voices and artists throughout his career”. Read moreMavlian said Fosso’s sustained exploration of self-portraiture “uses a traditional while at the same time his work remains relevant and addresses contemporary political issues of today with humour and authenticity” Raised in Nigeria and in 1972 was taken in by an uncle in Bangui in the Central African Republic he opened his Studio Photo Nationale to take commercial portrait photographs he made self-portraits to fill the unused parts of his photographic films but it became a mode of representation the artist has never abandoned “I started taking self-portraits simply to use up spare film; people wanted their photographs the next day, even if the roll wasn’t finished, and I didn’t like waste. The idea was to send some pictures to my mother in Nigeria, to show her I was all right,” he has previously told the Guardian Self-Portrait (Angela Davis) from the series African Spirits Photograph: © Samuel Fosso Courtesy the artist and JM Patras It began as a way of seeing myself grow up and slowly it became a personal history – as well as art there was an exhibition of African photography in Mali Fosso plays the role of leading historical figures in front of the camera demonstrating photography’s role in the construction of myths the director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation said Fosso’s retrospective “opened up new perspectives allowing many more people to discover his work for the first time; and thrilled and surprised those who felt they already knew it” “Through the retrospective we were able to see his work differently and gain a much deeper understanding of the relevance of his practice today,” she said The jury also acknowledged the work of the other shortlisted artists – Bieke Depoorter The exhibition showcasing all four artists is at the Photographers’ Gallery until 11 June photography has been used as a tool for both liberation and subjugation of the Global South and “other” indigenous people in order to justify their conquest and exploitation of ancient lands With the African Independence Movement of the 21st century local photography studios reclaimed the power of self-expression through portraiture families traditionally commissioned portraits of new children when they reached the age of three months – but Samuel Fosso was not photographed until the age of ten as a child Fosso was sick and partially paralysed – his father thought that having a portrait made might be a waste of money The absence of these vital images left a void in Fosso’s formative years one further exacerbated when the Nigerian Civil War broke out Fosso fled Biafra and travelled to Bangui in the Central African Republic to live with an uncle Here he began an apprenticeship with a local photo studio before opening his own Fosso used up the last frames on the rolls of film making self-portraits he would send home to his grandmother in Nigeria “Samuel Fosso is a survivalist,” says Princeton University professor Chika Okeke-Agulu who has known and worked with Fosso for years “Photography became both a space of self-enunciation and a space of refuge as a child exile in the Central African Republic The studio became the space where he could establish symbolic lines of communication with home That’s what led him to turn the camera on himself.” Fosso’s practice on both sides of the camera quickly surpassed the realm of self-portraiture and began to delve into performance – a place to explore the spaces where history Fosso employed what Okeke-Agulu describes as a “photographic masquerade,” casting himself as archetypes and mythic figures to examine complexly layered aspects of Black identity Whether remaking iconic images of Angela Davis, Muhammad Ali and Patrice Lumumba for African Spirits (2008) casting himself as supreme leader of the Catholic Church for Black Pope (2017) or transforming into fictional characters like the businessman Fosso’s groundbreaking series offer critical perspectives of the Black experience liberated from the narrow confined of the white gaze Okeke-Agulu has curated the artist’s first major US survey Organised by Princeton University Art Museum in collaboration with the Walther Collection Affirmative Acts traces the artist’s evolution over the past half century as he imagines the subjectivities of Black experience through his own body Fosso uses photography as a tool of postcolonial critique to examine the interconnectedness of modern life through the dual lens of Pan-Africanism and foreign influence from both the East and the West While many critics have focused on the aspects of gender and sexuality in Fosso’s work Okeke-Agulu points to a much deeper line that runs through his practice: the fundamental issue of displacement he experienced in his youth “The yearning to return home is one of the most powerful motivations for him as an artist His art was one of the only avenues to accomplish that homeward journey,” Okeke-Agulu says “There is a ritualistic aspect of acting that is important to him The masquerade is not simply about the physical performance it is also a philosophical and spiritual connection to imagined communities in his hometown in Nigeria or the Pan-African world of Blackness – a quest to return home that he did not accomplish until 2015 when he moved his family back to Nigeria and built a studio there.” Although Fosso is deeply attuned to the zeitgeist he is not beholden to fashionable topics but rather has a clear vision of himself Fosso moves beneath the surface to inhabit the profoundly spiritual spaces to capture the most ephemeral and ethereal aspects of existence itself which features 666 tightly cropped portraits made in 2015 “What you see here is the kind of introspection that runs against everything we believe about human subjectivity in the here and now – the selfie We’re taking pictures of ourselves for others to see what we want them to see It’s a long introspective engagement with the self the kind of thing I imagine only possible in monasteries or in places where people have nothing else but to think about themselves Samuel Fosso: Affirmative Acts is on show at Art on Hulfish in Princeton New Jersey from 19 November 2022 – 29 January 2023 are currently being exhibited at the Walther Collection in New York Fosso began photographing himself soon after he opened his business and wedding photographs for paying customers the exhibition’s unspoken premise seems to be that the artist is due for a mid-career retrospective Established by German-American collector Artur Walther the nonprofit Walther Collection has only been public since 2010 adding an outpost in New York’s Chelsea district a year later Walther has focused primarily on collecting contemporary Asian and African photography and video art particularly around the subject of stereotype and selfhood This exhibition is the first in the US to combine Fosso’s past and present work in one show with self-portraits alongside his studio work the images are arranged in series: Self-Portraits From the ’70s news broke that Fosso’s property had been looted amid escalating violence in Bangui while he and his family were in Paris chief photographer for the Associated Press in Africa came across thirty years’ worth of negatives and prints strewn along a dirt road With the assistance of colleagues and Human Rights Watch Delay was able to frantically pile most of it into his car before escaping Fosso’s studio became a place where his subjects could imagine themselves untouched by repression an English-speaking town in southwestern Cameroon His father is unknown; his mother was of the Igbo tribe in southeastern Nigeria he was taken by his mother to Nigeria to be cured by his grandfather after which he traveled to Bangui to work with an uncle who owned a footwear factory Laboring there as an assistant soon became tedious “I figured it was less burdensome work and that it would allow me to be more neat and orderly,” Fosso said in an interview with curator Guido Schlinkert published in 2004 This interest in orderliness was perhaps a way to stay sane in spite of the political upheaval occurring during the dictatorship of Jean-Bédel Bokassa Fosso’s studio became a place where his subjects (a couple holding each other lovingly a man posing with eight children and an older woman a boy wearing a headset) could imagine themselves untouched by repression Fosso uses his medium differently from older-generation African photographers such as Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta The initial drive behind the work was practical He was bored; he wanted to avoid wasting unexposed rolls of film; and he sent the resulting images home to assure his grandmother of his well-being when French photographer Bernard Descamps—co-founder and co-artistic director of the first African Photography Encounters festival in Bamako and asked a local Kodak representative about photographers in the area Descamps left Fosso’s studio with a stack of negatives of the self-portraits which he then showed at the inaugural biennale the following year Fosso’s work has been included in group shows at the Guggenheim “It never would have crossed my mind to exhibit these photographs,” Fosso said to Schlinkert The self-portraits are intimate for what they allow to be imagined Fosso can be identified as someone other than who he is; by turning the camera on himself is tempered with the swagger and vogue of that decade and platform shoes: articles of clothing banned by the dictatorship A sense of mild protest in his depictions of various selves continues in his later work the photographs reference a moment or a figure framed by the satirical and political includes “La Femme américaine libérée des années 70,” in which he becomes a liberated American woman as he describes in the Schlinkert interview Fosso paid tribute to historical figures such as Emperor Haile Selassie and Léopold Sédar Senghor by re-enacting their famous portraits acknowledging that the continent stretched into its diaspora one to be appreciated irrespective of the diversities that constitute Africa given the earliest moments of his life spent traversing inter-African borders In “Le rêve de mon grand père” (2003) Fosso is dressed in traditional Igbo attire or in realization of an alternative career as a traditional healer and village chief The photographs transform self-absorption into value and without stain,” Fosso told the New York Times The photographs of an older Fosso are an archive of engagement with colonial and postcolonial histories and identities All the figures in African Spirits are replicated according to their representations in the public imagination The rigor of this work cannot be taken for granted It is the rigor of one who passes through fire and emerges exact and elegant these representations of our favorite black heroes ask viewers to think about the use of public images Samuel Fosso at the Walther Collection in New York runs through January 17 Emmanuel Iduma is the author of the novel Farad (Parresia Books), and co-editor of Gambit: Newer African Writing (The Mantle). He works as co-publisher of Saraba Magazine and director of research for Invisible Borders Trans-African Organization More than 80% of our finances come from readers like you And we’re constantly working to produce a magazine that deserves you—a magazine that is a platform for ideas fostering justice If you value Guernica’s role in this era of obfuscation, please donate Help us stay in the fight by giving here Edward Burtynsky’s Water Painted Flowers and Other Photographs Kitintale Skateboarders Photographs Guernica is a non-profit magazine dedicated to global art and politics With contributors from every continent and at every stage of their careers at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Maple Grove with visitation from 9:00-11:00 a.m at the church.  Interment will be at Old Mamre Cemetery in Pennock.  Memorials are preferred to the Mayo Clinic for POEMS Syndrome research or to CaringBridge.  Arrangements are with Harvey Anderson Funeral Home in Willmar where he became the beloved little brother of two older sisters Bob graduated from Columbia Heights High School and later enrolled in NEI College of Technology as an Electronics Technician Roxie (Tim) Ross and Linda (Bill) Davis; daughter Lauren (Andrew) Blaisdell and grandchildren Lonnie (Penny) Fosso and Ryan (Sarah) Fosso; his former wife and mother of his children Sharon Olson; his nieces and nephews; and special friend Gladys and Arthur Baldwin and Elsie and Harry Rodenberg; and several aunts and uncles Bob served as a Quality Manager for various companies in the Twin Cities area He enjoyed a 16 year career at Spec Plating in Fridley before landing at Donaldson’s Aerospace and Defense Division and ultimately Richlind Metal Fab in Chaska at just the perfect time so he could be much closer to their home as our Lord was giving Bob his ultimate role of caregiver Bob underwent a stem cell transplant at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester for POEMS Syndrome This elusive disease took our nation’s best doctors multiple visits to correctly diagnosis The rarity of his disease placed him as an individual who was literally three in a million Something Kelly always claimed she knew.  Initially being a patient Bob became the ever-patient full-time caregiver to his wife a year following her diagnosis with a GBM terminal brain tumor Bob selflessly and lovingly took on all of Kelly’s daily care duties and their once shared household duties as well Bob and Kelly’s favorite pastime was biking Enjoying many local trails and beautiful scenic paths as many summers were planned around our great states organized rides.  Bob had a love for woodworking he crafted many beautiful custom-made basement bars His do-it-yourself talents also included remodeling his dad’s home construction of a beautiful decks and a tree fort for his nieces and nephew who loved to spoil his family with delicious food His kids will always remember his perfectly done steaks and the rotisserie turkeys at Thanksgiving gentle and loving person who wanted the best for everyone around him Mayo Clinic200 First Street SW, Rochester MN 55905Tel: 1-855-852-8129Email: development@mayo.eduWeb: https://philanthropy.mayoclinic.org/donateMC 2014Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story1 / 14ChevronChevron“The Golf Player,” 1997.The photographer Samuel Fosso set up a studio in Bangui Fosso took portraits during the day to earn a living; at night and sent the resulting self-portraits to his mother Fosso created a body of work that became increasingly provocative and experimental After winning an award at African Photography Encounters Africa’s most important photography festival Fosso gained international recognition; today he is widely considered one of Africa’s most important contemporary artists amid catastrophic violence in the Central African Republic Fosso’s studio was ransacked and much of his archive destroyed the Walther Collection in New York has managed to stage a solo exhibition of Fosso’s work His series “African Spirits” and “The Emperor of Africa,” on view for the first time in the U.S include well-known self-portraits of Fosso impersonating civil-rights and African-independence leaders Also on view are recent color works and Fosso’s early studio portraits suggestive of the work of Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé “Samuel Fosso” is on view at the Walther Collection through January 17, 2015. All images copyright Samuel Fosso, courtesy the Walther Collection and Jean Marc Patras Galerie. Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2023 exhibition at The Photographers’ Gallery © Kate Elliott 2008 © Samuel Fosso Courtesy of the artist and JM Patras 1976 © Samuel Fosso Courtesy of the artist and JM Patras 1975-78 © Samuel Fosso Courtesy of the artist and JM Patras Self-Portrait (Tommie Smith) from the series African Spirits Samuel Fosso was raised in Nigeria and fled the Biafran War as a young boy In 1972 he was taken in by an uncle in Bangui in the Central African Republic and in 1975 Alongside his commercial work he started to take self-portraits Now this work has won Fosso the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2023 aimed at artists and projects deemed to have made the most significant contribution to photography over the preceding 12 months Fosso was awarded the prize for the retrospective Samuel Fosso at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie which was on show from 10 November 2021 to 13 March 2022 with £5000 each going to the three other shortlisted artists: Bieke Depoorter The judges for this year’s award were Nathalie Herschdorfer head of contemporary photography at Instituto Moreira Salles director of Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation which is currently displaying work by all four finalists “We are delighted to announce Samuel Fosso as the winner of this year’s prize,” says Mavlian “His sustained exploration of self-portraiture uses a traditional while at the same time his work remains relevant and addresses contemporary political issues of today with humour and authenticity His work has created an extraordinary platform for Black voices and artists throughout his career.” Exploring self-presentation and gender representation Fosso has portrayed iconic Black figures such as Muhummad Ali winning him the first African Photography Encounters in Bamako and in 1997 Parisian department store Tati commissioned him to recreate an African portrait studio “un goût profond pour la mode” – “a deep love of fashion” Fosso’s work has long been recognised in the art world and exhibited in institutions such as Museum of Modern Art London; and Centre National de la Photographie In 1997 Fosso released The Chief: He Who Sold Africa To The Colonists in 1997 depicting himself as a decorated African leader intellectual and cultural figures from Pan-African movements and the US Civil Rights Movement These works testify to his determination to highlight Black and African history although he told BJP; “My art is not political Instead he hopes to transcend political power games “to bear witness to the past for current and future generations to fill in the gaps in the communal narrative” Fosso has also made works depicting alternative realities or speculative futures I would like – in a utopian way – for the cultural sector and for humanity to rise above these questions,” he told BJP In 2014 Fosso’s home studio in Bangui was ransacked after sectarian violence an incident discovered by chance by photojournalist Jerome Delay who with fellow photojournalist Marcus Bleasdale and Peter Bouckaert salvaged an estimated 20,000 negatives and 150–200 prints Fosso’s cameras were stolen and the artist a series of hundreds of self-portrait Polaroids “After these wars and all the hardships I have suffered and photography helps me to continue on this path,” he told BJP The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2023 is on show at The Photographers’ Gallery returning for a second stint on staff in 2023 Diane lectures in photography history and theory at the London College of Communications and has curated exhibitions for The Photographers Gallery and Lianzhou Foto Festival '+n.escapeExpression("function"==typeof(o=null!=(o=r(e,"eyebrowText")||(null!=l?r(l,"eyebrowText"):l))?o:n.hooks.helperMissing)?o.call(null!=l?l:n.nullContext||{},{name:"eyebrowText",hash:{},data:t,loc:{start:{line:28,column:63},end:{line:28,column:78}}}):o)+" \n '+(null!=(o=c(e,"if").call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2PreText"):l,{name:"if",hash:{},fn:n.program(32,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:63,column:20},end:{line:63,column:61}}}))?o:"")+"\n"+(null!=(o=(c(e,"ifAll")||l&&c(l,"ifAll")||n.hooks.helperMissing).call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Text"):l,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Link"):l,{name:"ifAll",hash:{},fn:n.program(34,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:64,column:20},end:{line:70,column:30}}}))?o:"")+" LondonBlack history and identity loom large in the work of Samuel Fosso and Arthur Jafa while Frida Orupabo offers strange hybrid creations and Bieke Depoorter faces an ethical dilemma uncanny hybrids and a missing personThis article is more than 2 years oldThe Photographers’ Gallery Read moreBlack history and identity loom large in the work of both artists but also the historical and contemporary function of the photographic image in creating Fosso’s series of performative self-portraits of iconic black figures have such a powerful presence that they seem to be watching you from across the years as you peruse his other work The diptych on an adjoining wall in which Fosso pays homage to the many west African soldiers who fought in both world wars is poignant as well as historically and formally complex of Jafa’s ambitious and provocative practice that leaves you longing for the full-scale experience I was uncertain as to how her art would translate to the gallery seeming to hover on the walls as if about to become animated Her raw material is sourced from the digital sphere – images found on social media her collages have a distinctly old-fashioned but her mainly female figures are loaded with meaning There is something unsettling, too, in the looks on the faces she has retrieved from history, their direct, unsparing stares. “The stare back is a way of fighting objectification,” Orupabo states in an illuminating video about her work on YouTube citing it as a kind of “resistance” to the gallery experience one that hopefully precipitates an “internal dialogue” between the viewer and subject Her quietly complex creations do that and much more It is rare to see contemporary issues of identity race and belonging explored though work that is so singular Entering the Belgian photographer Bieke Depoorter’s room, one is immediately transported to another conceptual universe, one of compulsion, self-doubt, blurred boundaries and ethical dilemmas. Her film, Michael, taken from A Chance Encounter tracks her relationship with one of her subjects whom she met by accident in Portland in 2015 and then lost touch with when he mysteriously disappeared Depoorter’s voiceover punctuated by the testimony of people who knew or crossed paths with Michael the film has a cumulative power that has much to do with the hypnotic rhythm and grain of her narration as the unfolding images Cumulative power … We walked together Photograph: ©Bieke Depoorter/Magnum Photos Courtesy of the artistMichael remains an eccentric and there are moments when I began to wonder if he was a creation of the artist’s imagination: an accomplished actor in an elaborately constructed mystery notes and ephemera pertaining to Michael’s obsessive life and his disappearance it tells you more about the narrator than the subject raises myriad questions about the compulsive nature of photography: the obsessive need to document that stayed with me for hours afterwards in the manner of an intriguing short story As to who might emerge as the winner: my heart is with Orupabo; my head says Jafa The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation prize is at the Photographers’ Gallery, London The Menil Collection presents Samuel Fosso: "African Spirits," an exhibition of the 14 large-scale gelatin silver prints from Fosso’s African Spirits series The show is presented in conjunction with the 2022 FotoFest Biennial and African Cosmologies Redux a new presentation of photography originally curated by Dr and Professor at University of the Arts London and other prominent figures from 20th century Black liberation movements Fosso’s photographs reference iconic images such as Carl Fischer’s photograph of Muhammad Ali that was published on the cover of Esquire in 1968 and the police mugshot taken of King after his arrest during the 1956 bus boycott in Montgomery Fosso’s reinterpretations of these historic photographs pay homage to the figures in the original images and raise questions about individuality and the complicated history of representation Janet Jackson released her single “Got ‘Til it’s Gone.” Today we celebrate the layered artistry that led to the video’s timeless appeal This October marks the 20th anniversary of Janet Jackson’s 1997 album The Velvet Rope. The album’s top single “Got ‘Til it’s Gone” holds up after two decades thanks to the contributions of six people: Janet Jackson Jackson leant the music an extra dimension by sampling influential songwriter Joni Mitchell, using a riff from Big Yellow Taxi in the song and in the title itself. As Lloyd Whitesell points out, Jackson, along with many other artists including Prince, “claimed Joni as an important muse.”  as well as Cameroonian photographer Samuel Fosso Since I didn’t have to worry about fixing people’s hair and posing them properly I was able to create spontaneous images of joy-and in that sense the party pictures were more interesting for me.” Jackson’s video echoes this sense of fun and freedom It is particularly poignant to have Joni Mitchell’s rallying cry and lament that “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone” laced throughout the song and video. In John Haskell’s piece “Laurel Canyon,” he surmises that underneath it all, Joni Mitchell was a utopian and that “her utopia was a belief in the possibility of turning idealism into something real and that’s why her songs—about sadness and loss and loss of love—usually have a note of possibility.” Jackson’s Got ‘Til It’s Gone seems to urge the listeners find hope and light even in dark times a message that continues to resonate today Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" who was born in Cameroon but lived in Bangui for years is an award-winning photographer who has exhibited his work around the world His prints – often involving self-portraits of himself as historical figures including Mao Zedong Malcolm X and Patrice Lumumba – are regarded as highly collectable and sell for thousands of pounds Associated Press's chief photographer in Africa who has covered conflicts around the globe had been photographing intercommunal violence – including horrific lynchings – when he came across negatives strewn in the dirt Marcus Bleasdale rescues archives of Samuel Fosso Photograph: Peter BouckaertBleasdale said: "Jerome was taking pictures in Miskin which is the Muslim quarter where Fosso lived – although he's not a Muslim himself Everyone had left and the Christian population was looting "He found a bunch of negatives lying in the dirt Fosso's housekeeper was still there trying to protect the house and studio from looters He went in and there was maybe 150-200 prints which he rescued But there were [also] boxes full of negatives – Fosso's life work – maybe 20,000." the two photographers – accompanied by Human Rights Watch director of emergencies Peter Bouckaert – returned to rescue Fosso's negatives "Everything of major value was being stolen But the prints had been left inside the house even as the roof was being ripped off," Bleasdale added "A lot were portraits he had been making of local people We couldn't rescue his cameras but we went back to get the archive." In a blog for the New York Times Delay "Thirty years of work lay scattered in the dust It reminded me of Serbian militias destroying birth reports from Muslim Kosovars in the early 2000s "I started to pick up the negatives … Ten minutes after I started to gather up his work demanding to know why a journalist was frantically putting things in a bag the captain proposed that he 'shoot and send the looters away' Members of the Central African armed forces surround a gendarme suspected of being a former Seleka rebel on 5 February Photograph: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty"As my helpers left I entered the house along with some colleagues.Fosso's office was littered with more boxes of negatives and prints some burned on the edges – they must have tried to set the house ablaze – some soiled with water and mud As we walked out with the most valuable work an anti-Balaka militiaman toting an AK-47 rushed by firing into the air He accused us of 'having called Sangaris' – the French forces – and ordered us to leave "Shoving all the prints and negatives into my car, we sped away. I called Fosso in Paris. He was devastated. But at least some of his legacy has been preserved."Peter Boukaert described the chaos of the scene they discovered in a dispatch for Human Rights Watch: "Young men with grenades were walking around us French and African peacekeepers entered the neighbourhood and fired in the air to disperse the looters but they usually quickly returned as the peacekeepers were leaving." Fosso's career took off in the mid-1990s after a chance encounter with a French talent scout led to his work being shown at the Guggenheim in New York In 1994 Bernard Descamps had been in Bangui and had asked to be introduced to local photographers and was taken to meet Fosso – already 20 years into his self-portraiture Rescued Samuel Fosso archives in the back of a pickup Photograph: Peter BouckaertSince being introduced to a wider international audience his work has been compared with artists as diverse as Diane Arbus and Cindy Sherman Despite his international fame, Fosso had continued to live discreetly in the Central African Republic until a few months ago when he and his family were forced to leave the country because of deepening conflict In an interview in the Guardian two and a half years ago Fosso said his favourite photo was a self-portrait of himself dressed as an African chieftain clutching a bunch of giant sunflowers He described how he had found his photographic voice "I started taking self-portraits simply to use up spare film; people wanted their photographs the next day The idea was to send some pictures to my mother in Nigeria After the rescue of Fosso's archive Delay spoke to his agent in Paris A photograph by Jerome Delay of a woman running for cover as heavy gunfire erupts in the Miskin district of Bangui on 3 February Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP"Samuel is cool calm and collected," Patras told Delay by phone from Paris on Wednesday morning but at the same time we can look at it as the glass half empty or half full His wife and kids are safe since last July in Nigeria If he had been in his house when they destroyed it Contemporary artists who reenact older works of art often put a new spin on the original themes Featuring seven photographers—Eileen Cowin and Qiu Zhijie—this exhibition explores how re-staging can highlight underrepresented stories and critique established narratives Presented in three categories—personal history and art history—the works showcase very different approaches to engaging with the past {{selectedEvent.calendarInfo.calendar.calendarName.$t}} {{selectedEvent.eventDateString.$t}} {{selectedEvent.eventTimeString.$t}} Between 1991 and 2001, Revue Noire brought contemporary African photography to the world showcasing the groundbreaking advancements in the art that had defined the image of Africa on a journey to independence that began in 1847 less than a decade after the invention of photography.  Photography lay at the heart of Revue Noire, a practice that offered challenging, revelatory, and innovative conversations about the form. Artists like Samuel Fosso and Rotimi Fani-Kayode — whose work is on view in The Spirit of Revue Noire: A Founding Collection — deftly crafted their own visual languages to explore notions of African identity photography is not a question of soul but above all a question of memory,” writer and curator Simon Njami observes in the essay “A Dress So Red,” which appears in the beginning of the chapter dedicated to photography in Revue Noire: Histoire Histories / History Stories.  Imbued with the power to render reality as it seems to occur photographs don’t just preserve individual memories; they become a patchwork of the collective consciousness that reimagine the times in which we live they shape notions of what the future holds as they become cultural touchstones.  With the understanding that “seeing is believing,” Revue Noire questions our assumptions and beliefs understanding that to simply give way to conventional thought it a recipe for disaster Recognizing that writing like photography is a quest to affix permanence in an ever-changing world the founders of Revue Noire take great care to remind us not to merely give ourselves over to the sensual pleasures of art and to confront the deeper existential crises it exposes “Stopping time and imposing one’s rhythm on it,” Njami writes We manage to find a little strength in the very insignificance of the things that remain.” The Spirit of Revue Noire: A Founding Collection is on view through March 31, 2023, at Hakanto Contemporary in Antananarivo, Madagascar. Revue Noire: Histoire Histories / History Stories is published by Éditions Revue Noire Read More : Samuel Fosso, Best Regards Don’t miss the latest photographic news, subscribe to Blind’s newsletter. You’re getting blind.Don’t miss the best of visual arts Subscribe for $7 per month or $84 $70 per year a few seconds staring directly into the sun to see the solar eclipse No need to bother with cardboard boxes or special glasses.  The sun on any day is dangerous to look at directly A solar eclipse is different only because people have reason to stare at the sun.  Optometrist Trevor Fosso works at PineCone Vision Center in Sartell he's excited about Monday's eclipse and is already planning a camping trip for 2024 "This is an amazing event that's coming up but we just want everyone to be careful," he said "We don't want someone going blind from it."  Read: What time is the eclipse where I live? The sun's energy is too much for the eye's light receptors "The energy of the light coming in is just too much energy to be absorbed when you're looking directly at the sun," he said "The only way to stop it is preventing it in the first place," Fosso said. "There's no recovery from that There's no treatment for when burns like that happen He and other professionals have to walk the line between scaring the public too little or too much.  what is the big deal about it?' But I know a  lot of my optometry colleagues and ophthalmologists the American Optometric Association has been doing a lot of advertising about the dangerous parts," Fosso said because we don't want people flooding in with these issues." PineCone Vision Center ordered about 300 eclipse glasses to give out Some of that education must have worked.  "These last couple of days people have been flooding in Read: Eclipse weather forecast: Will you be able to see the sky spectacle? People will have to find a friend to share glasses head to a public event including ones at local libraries where glasses can be shared of the eclipse occurring," Fosso said.  The intensity of the sun could burn out the camera and processors if you don't have the right equipment.  Eclipse glasses block 99.9996 percent of sunlight That 0.0996 percent is enough to make the difference "Even that little amount can do severe damage to the retina," Fosso said.  Some people are planning to keep pets and children inside because it's hard to control where they look Read: The solar eclipse is going to confuse animals — a lot one person snagged a pair before they ran out of glasses.  "We have one pair that about all 30 of us are going to take turns sharing," he said.  Some options for Central Minnesotans:  Great River Regional Library branches do not have glasses available for people to take home but they will be available to share at eclipse-viewing events a public relations specialist for the library system.  Follow Stephanie Dickrell on Twitter @SctimesSteph, like her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sctimessteph, call her at 255-8749 or find more stories at www.sctimes.com/sdickrell Police found videos and photos showing Eduardo Fosso in restraints and fitted with a dog shock-collar around his neck