Léonce Raphaël Agbodjélou (born 1965), is a

Beninese Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

photographer and teacher.

Biography

Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou was born in

Porto-Novo , , ; ; ; also known as Hogbonu and Ajashe) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Benin, second-largest city of Benin. The commune covers an area of and as of 2002 had a population of 223,552 people. In 1863, following Bri ...

in 1965. He is the son of Benin photographer Joseph Agbodjelou (1912–1999). He was trained by his father. They traveled together with portable studio. They used a traditional colorful fabrics as a background for the people portraits they made. Leonce Agbodjelou founded the first Photography School in Benin. He serves as the President of the Photographer's Association of Porto-Novo.

Work

Agbodjelou's portraiture series, ''Citizens of Porto-Novo'' depicts people of Benin's capital. He is using a daylight studio and a medium format film camera for the project. His 'Musclemen' shows staged studio photograph of muscular men, which is popular theme in the West Africa. The 'Egungun' project are photographs of the masqueraders, depicting divine ancestors of Yoruba-speaking people. They usually appear at funerals to guide deceased to the spirit world. They can also appear at any time to protect people from misfortunes.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

* 2011 ''Egungun Project. A Sumptuous Masquerade'', Jack Bell Gallery,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

* 2015 ''Egungun Masquerades'', SMAC Gallery,

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, South Africa * 2017 ''The Egungun Project: One man show'', Kleinschmidt Fine Photographs,

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

Group exhibitions

* 2013 ''Native Nostalgia'', Museum of African Design,

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

* 2013 ''Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2013'',

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

* 2015 ''Staring Back: The Creation and Legacy of Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon'', Fleming Museum of Art * 2015 ''Disguise: Masks and Global African Art'',

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The museum operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in ...

* 2016 ''Disguise: Masks and Global African Art'',

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

* 2017 ''Regarding Africa'',

Tel Aviv Museum of Art The Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art both from Israel and around the world. History The Tel Aviv ...

* 2017 ''African-Print Fashion Now!'',

Fowler Museum at UCLA The Fowler Museum at UCLA (commonly known as The Fowler, and formerly Museum of Cultural History and Fowler Museum of Cultural History) is a museum on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) which explores art and material ...

*2020 ''Through an African Lens: Sub-Saharan Photography from the Museum's Collection,'' The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, Texas

Collections

Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou works are in public collections around the world, including Zurich Museum of Art,

Pitt Rivers Museum Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed ...

in Oxford,

Saatchi Collection The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art and an independent charity opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985. Exhibitions which drew upon the collection of Charles Saatchi, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving to the D ...

in London,

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art is an art museum in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The museum was originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was formerly located ...

, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in

and Museum of Modern Art in Equatorial Guinea.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agbodjelou, Leonce 1965 births Living people Beninese photographers People from Porto-Novo 20th-century photographers 20th-century Beninese artists 20th-century Beninese male artists 21st-century Beninese male artists 21st-century photographers 21st-century Beninese artists