I first came across Paul Sika’s photos on the blog Africa is a Country and was immediately transfixed by how he transformed scenes that seemed so familiar to me into something brilliantly technicolor and radiant. I emailed him last week and asked a few questions and he was kind enough to fill me in with a little bit of information about his work for Context Africa.

Context Africa is new series on this blog that highlights projects that go above and beyond daily content making to tell a story of a place in its context. I also hope create an ongoing dialogue about what it means to tell contextual stories in Africa. There’s a lot of daily news out there that is factually incorrect, slanted, or stereotyped. But, there are also a lot of journalists committed to telling a different kind of story.

See previous Context Africa entries:

• Andrew Rice on memory, murder and Idi Amin
• Tim Hetherington on the culmination of ten years of taking pictures in Liberia
• Rob Crilly on how to write about a place as contentious as Darfur
• Nicholai Lidow on post-conflict surfing
• Jina Moore’s Q and A about forgiveness in Rwanda

How did you get started as a photographer and how did you look evolve into what it is now?

In 2003 when I was studying English in London in order to start my studies in Software Engineering, I happened to realize I was in love with cinema. Indeed I was walking down Tottenham Court Road on my way home when I got mesmerized by the Matrix Reloaded trailer that was playing in the window. Right there on the spot, when seeing that Agent, in the famous Highway scene, jumping from one car and landcrashing another, I realized I wanted to make movies. I thought to myself “is it this type of imagination that is required to make movies? Because if it is then I think I am well equipped.” I then started to think about my past, how I was very attracted to video games which I was playing nearly all the time.

I love storytelling too. I remembered that once I was the Game Master at some voice Role Playing Game, and I would create the story and narrate live. I even managed to convey fear to the players in bright daylight. It was an amazing experience. So from that life changing moment, I wanted to enter a filmmaking school instead of Software Engineering. The ones I had discovered were too expensive for me and I entered Westminster University for the S.E. course. After a year I wanted to drop out. But in the end I did not and finished with Distinction. Still very much interested in cinema, but not wanting to jeopardize my studies I bought a still camera with it in mind that I would explore the still image as it is the unit of the moving picture and when I am done with S.E. I would get into some film school.

On the technical side of things, can you tell me a bit about how you create the sort of Technicolor dream space that your photos occupy? How much of the work happens during the snapping and how much during postproduction?

Well I am a digital technology advocate. In fact when I was considering starting photography, I investigated the type of technology around and trust me if digital did not exist, I would not have entered the field. I wanted quick and accurate results. I love immediate feedback so I can orientate my choices. I love to move at the speed of thought.

I use Photoshop, one of my favorite ever tools and the main one anyway. I over saturate my colors. I also paint over them. In a way it is not easy to describe the process because it is to me so instinctive. When I am in postproduction, most of the time I don’t realize I am thinking because it is going so fast.

The characters you see on the photos are all present at the time of shooting. I do not add any person in post, at least for the moment – that is because I am a director. I am a Film Director using a still photo camera.

Do you consider your work editorial or creative? Or some kind of hybrid?

I do not see Editorial and Creative separately. I am pushing for more creative editorials.
I think it is time we open the door for more daring, creative, researched, accomplished editorials. Some have started to do so but I do not feel it is widespread enough. We must surpass ourselves and create imagery we will remember for a long time. I am in fact thinking of doing some photo essays with my style of photography.

You’re currently based in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. How did you end up there? Where are you from?

Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire is the place I saw my first sun rays back in 1985.
But you know what, I do not see myself as limited by borders and frontiers.
I am Global. That is my nationality: Global. My other nationality: Entrepreneur. My third nationality: Creative.

Can you describe the different phases of your work?

Overlapping one another a little bit, the three main categories on my web site are Photomaking, Illustrations and Monochrome, which more or less represent the 3 great periods of my photography.

As a complete beginner I was doing a lot of monochrome, yet very much interested in colors. And if you take a good look at the monochrome pics, you will see that they are photos of life happenings, events/things/people you could meet/live/encounter yourself. In that period I was a witness of my surroundings. Not really putting my own judgment/vision I was a complete receiver.

Then if you look at the Illustrations, the images are getting some scrambling treatment. They are mixes of several photos, of different kinds of subjects: people, nature, objects, animals…. some start to have a surrealist/fantastic feel to them. At this stage, I started to insert/inject my vision.

Then Photomaking was the last/latest stage where I am without mercy projecting my own vision onto the photo especially, with the latest photo series such as At The Heart
Of Me with Murielle Nanie (Miss Cote d’Ivoire 2008). The set was our most ambitious one. We built the wall, carved out the heart, painted on the walls.

People around me were telling me I was putting too much money into the production of just a photo. I didn’t follow what they said.