Cameroon

“My work is personal, its shows my relationship with the natural light, the sound and colour”, said the Cameroonian born Parisian.

In his show that took place on the sidelines of the Harare International Festival of the Arts, HIFA, in Harare recently, Betote shows us how he has coerced the people around him such as models in the black community of France.

He has just organized the show courtesy of Calvin Dondo, the founder of Gwanza Month of Photography, forthcoming in July. And a sizable crowed comprising two of Zimbabwe’s leading photographers David Brazier and Tsvangirai Mukwazhi, have gathered around to hear speak about his luminous career.

Casting a giant and imposing figure, it seems his work extends from this natural physical structure into a rich Afrocentric anthology of the black continent’s social, economic and political strata.

Titled Corps Instrumental or Body of Instruments, the work showed African figures, a photogenic and highly attractive assortment of female models, posing in different angles, silhouetted tones that made compelling viewing. The multimedia presentation featured soft Afro pop beats in the background, adding to a whole new feeling to the entire exhibition.

By photographing mostly women, African for that matter, it seems Betote is fond of the voluminous bodies of this species, but as he explains, this face is just coincidental. The images do not end with women alone, Betote work depict Afrocentric fashion, modeling, face painting/decoration, traditional and head adornments, African social scenes, street dances, figures playing with African music instruments such as the Kora. Indeed, traditional Africa at its contemporary nature. In the background there were Kora fusions, balafone sounds and faded yet compact jembe beats, all adding to a wholesome showcase.

But how and where did he take these somewhat exhilarating pictures? “All these photon were taken in Paris. I have made friends over the years that I befriended and invited to pose for shots in my studio. Sometimes I use musical instruments to create exciting situations that make the figures look stunning ”, he explained. In deed, Betote’s photographic portfolio looked really exotic and chic, particularly with the female model element in focus.

Betote paid gratitude to the black community in France whom he said had helped in developing what has become a successful and international photographic career.

Asked why he chose to present the slides in a multi media fashion, he said:’ Multimedia presentation is the best for me. I find it appealing, its not boring, its dynamic and modern.” “Ever since my stay in France, I have received support and encouragement from the black community there. People from Cameroon, Senegal, Gambia, Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, among others have seen my work and made comments that kept me going and feel good to create more. They have made my job easier”.

Betote has shown his work in two major projects in his native Cameroon and neighboring Chad under the auspices of the French organization AFAA.

His slide show not only presented the African Diaspora, but it talked about the continent of rhythms, their past and present as shown by instruments from West Africa and the surrounding region.

There are more female models in his works that males but he explained that is not at all intended. Asked his secret to success in a European set up where African photographers generally struggled to make it, he said:” I survived through various factors such as press photography and good promotion of my work. I had tip fight through, work extra hard”. I was also lucky to work with a newspaper manager who did not select work according to race, colour, whether one was white or black but on merit”. That really worked and I grew from an unknown to someone who now enjoyed a following and eventually established myself in tough Paris”.

Betote acknowledges that the intensity of competition in cities like Paris was not different from that in London and New York where some of the world’s leading photographers have taken control.

Betote was part of the founding team of the famed Bamako Encounters Photographic Biennale alongside other luminaries in the genre such as Robert Pledge and Robert Delpire. Betote is fascinated by African images, an element that stands out in most of his work. He has lived in Europe for more than twenty years but his affinity for African imagery is unquenched and still developing. Although he has taken photographs in many parts of the world, his most attractive and perhaps more interesting pictures have been taken on the black musical stage. Through his focus on the beat masters of the continent Betote’s achievements as a great compiler of African performance history is unparallel. Today, the Cameroonian Parisian boasts of a catalogue full African musical history. Since the early 70s, Betote has met and interacted and chatted with and made great friendships with the continent’s top musicians. Whether it is Papa Wemba, Alpha Blondy, Cesaria Evora, Manu Dibango, Fela Anukulapo Kuti, Ray Lema, Tabu Ley Rochereau, Salif Keita, Yousou Ndour, he has captured them at one time or another as they exhorted the virtues of African performance art, in some of the world’s best stages.

Writing in the 2001 Bamako Encounters Photographic Biennale Catalogue French art critic Jacques Matinet said: “Photography for Betote is a shared history, a way of life. Wherever he is, he conveys the bonds, feelings and expressions of Africans. He captures their allure and language with the sharpened passion of a griot, the traditional African poet/musician/story teller”.

Betote was born in 1952 in Douala, Cameroon. He went to France in 1972, where he still lives and works. H reported on the black music wave of the eighties on all the European stages and his pictures have been published mainly in the French media such as Liberation, Le Monde, Le Nouvel Obeservateur, June Afrique among others, His work dates back more than 30 years. Giant and casting an imposing figure, his work portrays a similar feeling, imposing it into the viewers eyes as if by force yet gently, an aspect achieved through his response to light, colour ands sound around his subjects.