Jinn are described as the “supernatural genies omnipresent in African cultures”. Fabrice Monteiro has been working with Ecofund in Senegal, West Africa, to create images that weave together interpretations of these supernatural beings and very real scenes of Senegal’s environmental destruction. Detailed costume and lighting design are used to turn locations representative of ecological damage into images of foreboding, and Monteiro’s decision to give these harsh scenes human faces means we can more easily interpret the pain, anguish, demise and, hopefully, strength. When we scrutinize the immensely detailed images, the alien landscapes are exposed as foreign realities that offer powerful insight into our own future if we do not alter our current trajectory. Prophecy has been created to distribute as an educational art book through the Schools of Senegal.

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Sembene! is a poetic documentary woven together through the perspective of narrator Samba Gadjigo, a Professor of African studies at Mt. Holyoke College and author of previous works about the life of Ousmane Sembene. Described as the father of African cinema, Sembene was the first director to create films of his countrymen with “their own identity, their own culture”, says Gadjigo, in contrast to previous depictions that created caricatures of the African identity. Senegalese-born and now American-based, Samba Gadjigo’s life was utterly inspired and driven by Ousmane Sembene’s representation of Africans, and through this film he navigates that admiration and understanding of the artist’s voice along with the wider historical importance of his work.

When Sembene returned to Senegal after an important time of artistic growth and education while working on the docks in Marseille, he had a clear vision to create work that gave his peers a voice to challenge a system designed to suppress. With no formal cinematic training, no budget, no precedent or context within which his work could be viewed, Semebene made art that was empowering to Africans such as Gadjigo, that challenged the political system and critiqued the social class.

Watch the video here.

Evan Tetreault uses film photography to create his own visual diary, a photographic record of personal memories. This collection documents recent travels through New Zealand and the North East Coast of America, far from his newly adopted Los Angeles home. The mix of portrait and landscape images creates a unique world of intimate moments that invites us to view and appreciate life’s subtleties, but it is a world we can never fully penetrate. The landscapes are wide and dreamlike, portraits are tightly cropped and the surroundings are askew; often, turned heads avoid the audience’s gaze and allow us to look longer and create our own narratives.

Evan has discussed the importance of film photography, and its value as a medium that encourages the artist to make a photo rather than simply take a photo. This approach to the medium also invites the audience to stop and take note of a moment and an image, instead of skipping so quickly onto the next.

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