Sunday finery á la Senegalese photographer Omar Victor Diop, whose work features in the V&A’s newly opened exhibition, Fashioning Masculinities. This image forms part of Diop’s 2014 series Diaspora, restaging various portraits of forgotten historical figures—in this case, the courtier and diarist Albert Badin. The original works all featured in The Image of the Black in Western Art, an oft-criticized 1960s research project by the art collector Dominique de Menil. “Diop’s chosen protagonists represent stories of Black power and resistance from different countries and eras,” explains our 2018 feature on Diop’s work, serving as “a way to challenge the monolithic history of Africa.” Click here to read on.
