“Mosquito Coast”, a new exhibition at the Cadaval Palace in the city of Evora-Portugal, showcases a series of thought-provoking photographs by
Guillaume Bonn, carefully chosen from within his portfolio to delve into the very essence of East Africa’s architectural identity.
Born in Madagascar to a family with deep roots spanning three generations in Africa and France, Bonn embarked on a deeply personal journey along the East African coastline for this series, from the shores of Mozambique to Djibouti’s vibrant coast. His photographic lens captures a region undergoing immense transformation, where the built environment bears the indelible marks of conflict, endemic diseases, and the climate crisis as it takes its hold.
These landscapes, part the stage for his own childhood memories, part of an Africa being discovered, bear the deepening scars of the relentless forces of extractive development alongside the lingering shadows of postcolonial instability.
Shaped by a unique vantage point as both insider and outsider, Bonn’s eye, and thus artistic rudder, is that of a perpetual traveller, navigating the capricious waves of belonging and separation. His perceptive lens is not merely observing the landscape, but deeply reflective and introspective, delving irrepressibly into personal and collective histories through an analytical examination of Africa’s architectural heritage. The photographs within the exhibition reveal an East Africa profoundly influenced by the ebb and flow of oceanic currents and the ceaseless rhythm of migratory tides. These ancient trade and migration routes have continuously permeated the region’s cultural and linguistic tapestry, forging a hybrid identity that is both compelling and, at times, haunting.
Within this work, Bonn employs the mosquito, a transmitter of malaria, as a powerful and poignant metaphor. This symbol speaks of the shared experience of disease that has permeated the continent, much like colonialism itself spread insidiously, irrevocably altering lives and leaving behind enduring scars. For Bonn, the complex and perpetually evolving identity of East Africa is intrinsically linked to the dynamic ocean currents that historically ferried travellers from India, the Arabian Peninsula, and subsequently Europeans, to its event-rich coastline.
Captured using the considered and physical process of analogue photography, with a Mamiya 7 camera, Bonn’s images are profound documental studies, eschewing the dishonesty of digital manipulation. Each frame is handcrafted and honest, studied and authentic – occasionally tinged with tragedy, often imbued with poetry, but always true. His trained eye reveals the harsh physical reality of the land but also a fractured emotional landscape, in which a pervading sense of loss colours the surviving architectural remnants. They present a past slowly fading, rendered resonant by the architectural fragments that remain. The feeling of le mal d’Afrique, referring to a past to which you can never return, or the saudade for an Africa that no longer exists, but one that persists vibrantly through these evocative landscapes of abandonment.
Guillaume Bonn
Guillaume Bonn has been a regular contributor to The New York Times and, for 15 years, to the U.S. edition of Vanity Fair, through photographic stories that have taken him from the humanitarian crisis in Darfur to the illegal ivory trade, and his coverage of the sexual abuse of children in the DRC by UN peacekeepers. As a documentary filmmaker, he notably directed a film on the legendary photographer Peter Beard for Canal+, which was broadcast worldwide. He is a member of the Royal Geographical Society in London.
www.guillaumebonn.com
@guillaumebonn
