Dressing to express

By Fleur Macdonald

In 1975 a teenage photographer called Samuel Fosso opened his own studio in Bangui, in the Central African Republic. During the day he would photograph clients; at night he would use up the unexposed rolls of film, taking photos of himself in different costumes and poses, sending some to his mother in Nigeria to reassure her that he was alright.

In one self-portrait he poses in an outfit that could have come out of David Bowie’s wardrobe: platform shoes, football socks and white fringed shorts. It was a provocative way to dress in a country then under the tyrannical rule of Jean-Bédel Bokassa. In 1979, the dictator reportedly sanctioned the execution of 100 schoolchildren for not wearing the correct school uniform.