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THE MANY FACES OF SAMUEL FOSSO
Tuesday 2 August 2005 8.30pm-9pm; 12.15am-12.45am; 3.40am-4.10am
Samuel Fosso is one of Africa's most eminent photographers. His photographs are shown all over Europe and America, from the Guggenheim in New York to galleries in Barcelona, Paris and Amsterdam. His art is self-portraiture - appearing as a Martial - Arts Maestro, an African chief and a Japanese Marine. BBC Four travels to Fosso's photography studio in Bangui, Central African Republic, to meet the man behind and in front of the camera.
Fosso started taking self-portraits using up exposures on his films - to send to his mother in Nigeria, whom he had left behind as a refugee fleeing the Biafran war in the late 1960s. Although his initial aim was to show he was alive and well, his interest in exploring the genre grew steadily, and he experimented with new techniques and poses. In one series, Fosso poses in front of a backdrop of Bucharest, which was a model for the socialist Central African Republic, and in another posing in his t-shirt featuring presidents of the Central African Republic.
In 1994, a chance discovery by a French talent scout brought Fosso's work to a wider audience and into the limelight of international critical attention.
His local community remains unaware of Fosso's success, a situation Fosso is keen to maintain. He is happy to keep his costumes out of sight and continue his passport and portrait photography business. His neighbours assume he travels to Europe to take wedding photos.
In February 2002, Samuel Fosso travelled to the United States for the first time, to attend the opening of an exhibition featuring his work in New York. BBC Four accompanies Fosso as he meets key figures of the New York art scene. The programme also visits his family village of Ebunwana Edda in Nigeria, to explore Samuel's feelings about his childhood during the Biafran War.
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