YaPhoto – Yaounde Photo Network, Cameroon’s new independent photography platform, announce YaPhoto#0.

Entitled What we see, this pilot edition is conceived as a programme of live events around photography practice. Showcasing a series of images selected from a workshop led by Christine Eyene in July with a group of local photographers, the project aims to take stock of a local gaze and of thematic, visual, and aesthetic investigations developed by the photographers.
Beyond the gaze, this title also refers to Georges Didi-Hubermann’s book Ce que nous voyons, Ce qui nous regarde (1992), in which the French art historian and philosopher addresses, among other issues, the question of visual experience and the notion of dialectical image developed by German philosopher Walter Benjamin.

Focusing on the idea of the “legible” form, What we see proposes to open up from one system of writing to the other: from photo-“graphy” to text. Drawing from a current research on the links between African literature and imagery, the project will attempt to build a bridge between image and imagination by associating photography and written word, not as a didactic tool but as another way of seeing. In this respect YaPhoto will seek to foster collaborations between photographers and young Cameroonian authors of different genres.
Conceived as an international platform, YaPhoto#0 will also include other gazes, notably through an invitation for photographers from across the continent to submit their snapshots for a special evening.

Programmed at the end of November 2016, YaPhoto#0 will open with a workshop led by Christine Eyene focusing on image interpretation and criticism, dedicated to art researchers, critics and cultural journalists. This will be followed by evening projections in various venues featuring, according to the practices, sound art, dance and spoken word. Finally, a conference will bring together photographers and diverse audiences, from students through to professionals and art lovers.

What we see is curated by Christine Eyene in collaboration with Landry Mbassi assisted by Aude Mgba.