Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou


Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou is a photographer from Benin.

Biography

Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou was born in Porto-Novo in 1965. He is the son of Benin photographer Joseph Moise Agbodjelou. He does not have a formal education and was trained by his father. They were traveled together with portable studio. They used a traditional colorful fabrics as a background for the people portraits they made. Leonce Agbodjelou founded the first Photography School in Benin. He serves as the President of the Photographer's Association of Porto-Novo.

Work

Agbodjelou's portraiture series, Citizens of Porto-Novo depicts people of Benin's capital. He is using a daylight studio and a medium format film camera for the project. His 'Musclemen' shows staged studio photograph of muscular men, which is popular theme in the West Africa. The 'Egungun' project are photographs of the masqueraders, depicting divine ancestors of Yoruba-speaking people. They usually appear at funerals to guide deceased to the spirit world. They can also appear at any time to protect people from misfortunes.

Exhibitions

Solo

Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou works are in public collections around the world, including Zurich Museum of Art, Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, Saatchi Collection in London, Carnegie Museum of Art, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town and Museum of Modern Art in Equatorial Guinea.