In some African countries boarding the Indian Ocean, public institutions often commissioned some photographers for particular projects due to the development of mass tourism. Hence, illustrated postcards and promotional images of the region have multiplied. This pushed other photographers to focus on capturing urban life and rural customs to represent the reality of their country. Their images were most of the time at the opposite of the commercial postcards.

Pierrot Men

Pierrot Men was born in 1954 in Midongy, Madagascar, from French, Malagasy, and Chinese descent. In 1974, he opened a photo studio in Fianarantsoa where he captured family portraits, passport photos, and local events. Yet at that time and for many years, photography was nothing but a financial support for his painting, but also an artistic inspiration since he made oil paintings from his photos. This situation will last for seventy years, until a friend told him bluntly that his photographs which he used for his paintings are much better than their pictorial result. In a country so rich in color, Pierrot Men has chosen black and white photography because of the poor quality of color photos development. His images tell a story and capture the reality and dignity of his subjects in their environment with an artistic imprint. In 1985, Dany Be, the pioneering Malagasy photographer and also one of his friends, invited Pierrot Men to take part in an exhibition in the capital. Since then, he has exhibited in Tananarive every year and has participated in several international exhibitions.

Yves Pitchen

Yves Pitchen was born in 1949 in Lubumbashi, Congo, from a Belgian mother and a Mauritian father. He studied photography in Brussels, Belgium before settling in Port Louis, Mauritius in 1979. Since then, Pitchen has documented the social life of the multicultural population of that island with an attention to the details. Mauritians are shown in their true light through his camera. His images are trying to fill the gap between reality and what foreigners often perceive as a postcard country. His images are the opposite of postcards, or rather the other side of the mirror since they represent the Mauritian reality. Pitchen captured and developed his images in black and white using a paper mixed with silver salts connected by gelatin, to improve the storage life of these pictures. His photographs have been exhibited locally and internationally including the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, before being published in the book Les Mauriciens (2006). In 1994, Pitchen has participated to the first Biennial of African Photography in Bamako, Mali.

Sergio Santimano

Sergio Santimano was born in 1956 in Lourenço Marques, now Maputo, Mozambique, of Indian and African origins. He started his career as a photojournalist for a local newspaper under the direction of Ricardo Rangel in 1982. A year later, he began to work in the national news agency, AIM, covering several topics of political and social issues. In 1988, Santimano moved to Sweden with his wife where he deepened his knowledge and practice of documentary photography. After the end of the Mozambican civil war in 1992, he worked as freelancer, documenting the consequences of war and the reconstruction of the country. In 1997, he travelled to the north of the country to explore the province of Cabo Delgado which will result to his series Cabo Delgado/A Photographic History of Africa. Between 2001 and 2005 Santimano led the project Terra Incognita that pays tribute to the people of Niassa by depicting their daily life, their cultural identity, and their solidarity in a region where they live under extreme conditions. In 2014, he exhibited photographs from Sweden and Mozambique, depicting intimacy, warmth, and sensitivity of people living in their environment.