In the first week of October 2019, the work of Michel ‘Papami’ Kameni was shown for the very first time, in the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair at London’s Somerset House. The photographs explore the rapid evolution of postcolonial Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, from 1963 onwards – many of the images had not been seen since they were shot 56 years ago. The cultural transformation in the photographs is astounding; from portraits from the 1960s that show sitters wearing traditional Cameroonian garments, to the Western impact that takes hold in the late 1970s, and the mixed religious influence in the area. How the photographs made it from a small studio in Cameroon to being exhibited worldwide is also an astounding feat.
