Fabrice Monteiro
Dakar and Thies, Senegal
Sport for Empowerment of Young Female Athletes
Young Senegalese women who wish to become involved in sports face a number of barriers to entry linked to the specific social, cultural and religious context. Monteiro’s photographic series explores the way different protagonists have navigated these hurdles to pursue their passions by placing their stories at the centre of the narrative: Awa (surfing), Aminata (roller), Aissatou (badminton), and Mira (breaking).
Monteiro’s images evoke the practical obstacles and social pressures these young women face and pay tribute to the support they receive from their respective coaches and family members to pursue their passions and dreams. The urban and rural landscapes of Dakar and Thies, providing a backdrop to the series, also reflect a growing network of clubs and federations championing emerging Senegalese athletes.
Biography
Born in 1972, Belgium
Lives and works in Dakar, Senegal
Fabrice Monteiro is an Agouda, the descendant of Brazilian slaves with Portuguese names. His background is multicultural: he was born in Belgium, grew up in Benin, and now lives and works in Dakar, Senegal. Monteiro worked as a model for around a decade, before becoming a photographer himself in 2007, after meeting the New York-based photographer Alfonse Pagano. Photography came naturally to him – as a professional model, he became aware of the complexity of the composition, the lighting and the posture. Behind the lens, Fabrice Monteiro’s images lie at the intersection between photojournalism and fashion photography.
“The diversity of my origins is my first source of inspiration. Relations between Africa and Europe have constantly fluctuated between attraction and rejection, empowerment and denial, recognition and anger. They have never been indifferent. The history of the African-European people over the last centuries, a history whose complexity I have inherited, guides my artistic choices and is my main source of inspiration”.
The photographic series The Prophecy was begun in 2013, when Monteiro returned to Africa after several years of absence, and discovered the devastating pollution that had overtaken the continent. The series was based on nine different environmental problems in Senegal, including forest fires, plastic waste and oil spills, and was gradually expanded to address worldwide pollution. This theme is personified in the photos of various figures who were inspired by West African masquerades and animism. The beautiful and distressing figures were created in collaboration with the Senegalese fashion designer Doulsy, who devised couture-like costumes made of trash and natural materials.
Fabrice Monteiro's latest works “8 Mile Wall” explore some of the stereotypical ways in which Africans were, and in some places continue to be, displayed. The series was inspired by a conversation he had with his father as a boy when he realised that, as a black man, the only way to be treated with consideration in Europe at the time was to wear a three-piece suit. Despite the rising brightness regarding Africa's prospects, Monteiro believes that, in a way, we are still trying to wear three-piece suits. Monteiro has a suggestion for those who may be interested in photography “I believe that you have to start looking into yourself, into what you are concerned with, your angers, your fears, the thing that you don’t understand in order to find the subjects you are interested in and to develop them. The great thing about photography, he says, is that the medium is almost a therapy.”
Collections
Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin
MEG - Musée d'ethnographie de Genève, Geneva
Iziko Museum, Cape Town
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
MACAAL - Fondation Alliance, Marrakech
MuPho, Musée de la photographie, Saint-Louis, Senegal
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle