Spectrum

A documentary project by Aina Zo Rabarento

What is the story behind these photographs? What was your process for taking them?

These are a series of photos from my first solo exhibition entitled Spectrum, which held in October-November 2023 at the Isart Galerie (Antananarivo, Madagascar). The exhibition was made up of five series of five black and white photos and one in colour, so 26 photos in all. All the photos were taken with my phone in the streets of Antananarivo. “Dancing in the Rain” is a series shot in the same neighbourhood. I was in traffic and it was raining. I've always loved the atmosphere when it's raining; a mixture of nostalgia and melancholy. I took photos of people hurrying home. And I’d say that the central photo in this series is the man with his umbrella, coming down the stairs with elegance and grace. I think he’s magnificent. The photo is quite poetic. “Night Lights” is a night-time series. At night, the atmosphere is also different, the lights are different. There’s an element of mystery.

For these photos, I chose to work with blur. People are used to thinking that a blurred photo is a bad photo. But blur adds another dimension to photography. Firstly, the blur is because I’m short-sighted. So I live with it every day. Blur doesn’t bother me.

Secondly it is blurred because I take most of my photos from the car. The images I get aren't necessarily sharp, and I thought I’d exploit that for my series of photos. There's also this idea of movement that I often look for in my photos. Finally because I like it when my photos are close to painting. I particularly like the grain and texture. Perhaps also close to a photo taken with a film camera.

To accentuate the blur, I decided to use an old photography technique: superimposition.  But it’s a technique I discovered by mistake last year. I wanted to give my photos more depth and I started to manipulate them by superimposing one or more photos. So in each series of photos, there are abstract photos taken using this technique.

What do you hope for viewers of the series to see when looking at the photographs?

The idea behind these photos is really to play with blur. Looking at a blurred photo is quite destabilising, and an abstract photo even more so. Through this series, I'm inviting people to go beyond the photo, to use their imagination, their fantasy, to allow themselves to dream.  During my exhibition here in Madagascar, children looked at the photos. They were happy to interpret the photos as they wished. They could tell their own story. Some saw bicycles, others boats... Using the technique of superimposition allowed me to have a new photo each time, and therefore, each time, a new story to tell.

Can you speak about your approach to photography, especially in relation to the kind of photographs on view?

In relation to these photos on view, my photographic approach is quite new, at least for me. I've ventured beyond the style of photography that I do, especially for abstract photos. I chose the theme of street photography, but I wanted to bring something different to it, to give it a different dimension. Here in Madagascar, people are used to seeing sharp photos and so they focus on technical issues. Personally, when I take the photos, I play much more on the feeling. The idea behind the photos is also manipulation. I had fun manipulating the photos, adding or removing elements. The aim is to let the public escape, reflect, and tell their own story.

— Aina Raberanto & Emmanuel Iduma

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Aina Zo Raberanto has been a cultural journalist in Antananarivo (Madagascar) for 13 years and is the editor-in-chief of a Madagascar cultural magazine. She uses her phone to capture the streets of her country, with a preference for black and white photography. See more of Raberanto’s work on Tender Photo.

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TENDER PHOTO is a collaborative digital archive and publishing platform of contemporary African photography, edited by Emmanuel Iduma. Our aim is to use photography to engage with life on the African continent. We publish narratives about the people, places, and events pictured in photographs, contributing to nuanced and layered perceptions. Every Wednesday we feature a photograph, a short caption about it, and a statement from the photographer. Last year, we published commentaries or photo-essays in response to photographs previously featured on the newsletter, including CORRESPONDENCES, CONCORDANCE, KINDRED, INDEX, and AFFINITIES.

This is the final edition of a series dedicated to the 5 photographers featured in Process Projected, Amsterdam. Read last week’s feature on Abdul Hamid Kanu.

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