Samuel Fosso
Autoportrait

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Artist Samuel Fosso(Cameroonian, born 1962)Cameroonian, born 1962

CultureCameroonian

Titles

Autoportrait
Self Portrait
from the series 70's Lifestyle

Date1975–1978, printed 2019

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 19 3/4 × 19 3/4 in. (50.2 × 50.1 cm)
Sheet: 20 7/8 × 20 11/16 in. (53 × 52.6 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Nina and Michael Zilkha

Object number2020.2

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionIn 1975, at age 13, Samuel Fosso opened a photography studio in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. During the day, he made portraits for clients. At night, he used the unfinished frames on his rolls of film to create expressive self-portraits with clothing and poses modeled on magazine photos. “When I work, it’s always a performance that I choose to undertake,” he said. “It’s not a subject or an object; it’s one more human being.” In his artworks, Fosso did not reveal who he was, but rather explored all the possibilities of who he could be.
Provenance[Yossi Milo Gallery, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2020.
Exhibition History"Through an African Lens: Sub-Saharan Photography from the Museum's Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 27–November 8, 2020.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Printed in black, recto, lower right margin: SF3886_SM11_V4_20X20_Final

[no verso inscriptions]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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