Flamboya

Contrasto - 2008
96 pp – Hardbound – 30,8 x 24,7 cm
First edition, first printing

Flamboya includes over fifty photographs taken across Africa—from Cape Town to Kenya to Zambia—that disregard traditional boundaries of genres and tackle the problematic bond between photography, imperialism, and the colonial imagination. Viviane Sassen’s aesthetic vocabulary suggestively recalls documentary as much as staged photography and relies on a visual economy that invites the formulation of multiple interpretations. Seen through Sassen’s lens, the ethnic 'Other' interrogates the traditional nexus laid between vision, knowledge, and power, which lies at the heart of the history and ideology of photography.  In 2007 Viviane Sassen received the prestigious Dutch art prize the 'Prix de Rome' for the series 'Flamboya'.

The book is featuring a story by Moses Isegawa and an essay by Edo Dijksterhuis. Martin Parr chose the book among the best ten photobooks of the decade.