Samuel Fosso, the renowned portrait photographer, has been forced into exile in Paris due to war and unrest in his native Central African Republic. However, despite the adversities he has faced, his career has been a success and his work admired globally in exhibitions by prestigious institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Centre Pompidou and Quai Branly museums in Paris. An exhibition of Fosso’s self-portraits at the Galerie Christophe Person in Paris, through June 17, shows that he can still bring his unique style to a wider audience despite the destruction of his studio and archive by looters during a conflict in the Central African Republic in 2014. One of his most famous works, his self-portrait as “The Chief Who Sold Africa to the Colonists,” captures the satirical nature of many of his pieces while continuing to explore political and racial identities. Fosso has always intended his work to be exhibited in museums so that Africans have access to the important histories of slavery and civil rights.
