James Barnor, witness to a Changing Ghana
A woman poses for the camera, seated on a giant box of Agfa photo film in Accra, Ghana. The date is October 22, 1970, and Ghanaian photographer James Barnor has…
I consider myself an architect that makes art.
Alfredo Jaar, one of the most socially engaged artists of our time, has conceived the exhibition Inferno & Paradiso, placing the audience at the heart of an immersive slide-projection installation. The project brings together photographs by twenty contemporary photojournalists selected by the artist, each of whom drew on their own archives to choose the most painful image and the most hopeful image of their career.
Like Virgil in Dante's Divine Comedy, Alfredo Jaar leads us on a journey alternating between hell and paradise, confronting our numbness in the face of the continuous flow of images of human suffering.
Samar Abu Elouf
Lynsey Addario
Motaz Azaiza
Véronique De Viguerie
Maxim Dondyuk
Abdulmonam Eassa
Donna Ferrato
Johanna-Maria Fritz
Olivier Jobard
Bülent Kilic
Alice Martins
Lorenzo Meloni
Finbarr O'Reilly
Darcy Padilla
Pablo Ernesto Piovano
Hannah Reyes Morales
Lindokuhle Sobekwa
Brent Stirton
Anastasia Taylor-Lind
Laetitia Vançon
Interview conducted by Julie Dayer, 2026
© 23bis/Photo Elysée/Plateforme 10
A woman poses for the camera, seated on a giant box of Agfa photo film in Accra, Ghana. The date is October 22, 1970, and Ghanaian photographer James Barnor has…
“I wanted to bear witness. Activism is linked to my journey as a woman. I have always been independent, self-reliant, active. I wanted to bear witness to the conditions of…