12/24
2011
2011
And a new year filled with growth and light.
I’m Glenna Gordon, an American photographer and journalist, presently commuting between West Africa and Brooklyn. Previously, I lived in Liberia. And before that, I lived in Uganda. I’ve traveled and worked in over a dozen countries in Africa.
I found the scarlett lion on the roof of a friend’s house in Kampala back in 2006 when I went through a crate of discarded items he and a few other artists had gathered. On that day, I was looking for something and I found the lion: a discarded kid’s toy made in China on the cheap, that somehow found it’s way to East Africa. Something about the hollowed out, paint chipped figurine appealed to my understanding of this place: I’d never seen a real lion, after all.
And a new year filled with growth and light.
A bit late posting about this, but last week at Guernica we featured an interview with Azu Nwagbogu, the founder of the African Artists Foundation, the brains behind LagosPhoto. Thanks to Joe Penney for doing the interview. There’s also a slideshow of some of the great work that was on show in Lagos — please head over and check it out!
This Nando’s advert, which is no longer being broadcast, has already been done the rounds on the internetz but I couldn’t resist reposting it here. My favorite part is Mugabe and Idi Amin doing the Titanic move on a tank. Which scene is your favorite?? Does anyone find this offensive? Or is it just funny?
See this photo and others in the Foreign Policy photo compilation Once Upon a Time in Mogadishu.
