Like a Viking with an Unyielding Gaze

Marcel Borgstijn on 3 photographs in the Tender Photo archive.

In these busy times with the volatility of Social Media, it is nice to receive a newsletter that you can read and review at your own time of choice. I find that this also adds depth to the photos you are looking at. Instead of scrolling along photos, occasionally liking them and sometimes reading the comments, you give Tender Photo your undivided attention. In addition, I like having the chance to discover a new photographer each week. And in my case, a photographer from a continent I know little about. Photographers who do their work in different circumstances and of course photograph very different environments and habits.

A young herdsman on a piece of land experiencing a lot of drought and emaciated cows. A recognizable image of how we in Europe get to see Africa. What appealed to me so much in this photo is the fact that the tree comes out of the boy's head. A “rule” in photography that you are supposed to pay attention to. But rules are limiting and should be treated more like guidelines in my opinion. And so I love that the photographer allowed that tree to “come out” of the boy's head. 

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A photo with humor. This picture fights for your attention. When you first see it, you don't know where to look. The colors pop off. Yellow, red and blue scream at you. First you notice the yellow cab and red shirt, but if you look a little more focused, you can't help but look at the man's helmet. Like a viking with an unyielding gaze, he looks at the photographer and the viewer.

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A beautiful still photograph of a man and woman sitting in the water. I don't know if this is a particular ritual with these brightly colored strips around them, but that just makes the photo more mysterious. The water has turned red because of the mud, I think, and doesn't look attractive, but combined with their dark skin and the bright strips makes it a great photo. If you zoom in, you can see the man's dreamy gaze and on the woman's lip there is just a trace of light.

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1–3: Photographs by Rachel Seidu, and Djibril Drame.

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About Marcel Borgstijn

Marcel Borgstijn is a conceptual photographer from the Netherlands, who prefers to work on long-term projects of between 1 and 2 years. This gives a lot of depth to his series. Since July 2022, he has published

Darkrooms

, a photography newsletter about inspiration and thoughts, interviews and projects.

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Support Tender Photo

This is the #1 edition of Correspondences, a pop-up series on Tender Photo. I have asked a few writers to find “correspondences” between 3 photographs from the archive, chosen without constraint, and to write short commentaries on their choice. The goal is to open up Tender Photo’s editorial and curatorial process to an engaged group of readers, broadening the diversity of responses to the varied work featured so far.

Tender Photo is a bi-weekly newsletter on African photography, published Wednesdays and Saturdays. See the archive for more features. If this newsletter was shared with you, consider subscribing, or forward to a friend. Please whitelist the newsletter to ensure you never miss it.