The 4 Female African Contemporary Artists You Should Know

Namsa Leuba

Namsa Leuba (b.1982) is a half-Guinean and half-Swiss photographer. During the past two years, her research focused on African identity through western eyes. In the series The African Queen, Namsa was inspired by African women. She tries to re-contextualize African elements through her camera, bringing these elements into a framework for occidental taste and aesthetic choices. 

She produces what she calls an 'intervention' on the models and on their typical African clothes. She tries to change the classic western perception of African culture. In every photograph Namsa always reconciles these two cultures. As these traditional objects become increasingly distant and unfamiliar in a fashion and western context, this body of work sheds light on two different cultural aesthetics through the personal experience of multi-cultural heritage and the performative intervention of the photographer.

http://theculturetrip.com/africa/nigeria/articles/the-4-female-african-artists-you-should-know-a-contemporary-feminine-world/

©namsa leuba "Cocktail"

Up close with the young acrobats of Namsa Leuba’s West African roots

Half-Guinean, half-Swiss photographer Namsa Leuba is a champion of African visual culture. She channels the contrasts of her African-European roots by looking at tribal identity through a western lens, and for her series Ya Kala Ben – meaning “crossed look” – Namsa draws on the overlapping cultures of her upbringing and explores the rituals and customs of her mother’s native Guinea. Her striking images have been exhibited alongside Martin Parr and Viviane Sassen, and these portraits of local Guinean acrobats who perform at different ceremonies in Conakry are part of the new group show at Tiwani Contemporary, the London gallery that was one our favourites at the debut edition of Photo London last week. Posted by Alex Hawkins, Wednesday 27 May 2015/ It's Nice That

©namsa leuba acrobats - Ya Kala Ben, 2011