A native of Benin and founder of the tiny West African nation’s first photography school, Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou has always produced portraits that are uniquely poised between tradition and modernity. His latest series of photographs captures the extraordinary costumes of the Egungun ritual, a Yoruba masquerade performed by the entire community to reach out to the dead. In full regalia the masqueraders are resplendent in textiles of complex patterning and opulent color, yet the obscuration of their faces tinge their energy with an unapproachable eeriness. Each subject stands on a sunlight-soaked village street, as much a fixture of present-day Yoruba society as ever. Agbodjélou’s gloriously technicolor lens finally records Egungun garb in a way that can do it justice. The Egungun Project exhibition opens at the Jack Bell Gallery in London on November 11th.

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