Judges
Courtesy of
Maroussia Mbaye
Faces of Humanity Series
Maroussia Mbaye
Winner
Maroussia is a graduate of the London College of Communication and the London School of Economics (LSE). They previously worked for International Development Institutions such as the AfDB and the United Nations before turning to photojournalism and documentary photography.
Her captivating images distinguish themselves through their profound expression. A pure product of multiculturalism, the Franco-Senegalese was raised in a very politically active family, and her contrasting experiences fuelled a fascination for social divisions, complexities, and justice, leading her to pursue photography after a career in international development.
The need to understand, investigate, show, and fight inequalities in the world fed an inexhaustible hunger for photography and presenting her vision of humanity. Seeking out, moving, at times unsettling, perspective-shifting images of life and the living, Maroussia also tries to discover new dimensions of the physical and human world through her journey and photographs: the peculiar, the funny, the lovely, and the terrifying.
Atlas of Dying African Traditions
Bubaque Island, Bijagos, Guinée-Bissau, Africa
2020
The project was born out of the need to document and share the dying traditions of the continent, which act as pillars to our societies. In a world of globalization, tradition often pays the price for modernity, and many have argued that the crisis the continent is facing today is the result of a society in crisis where myths and rites have been extensively weakened. The idea that society cannot bring protection to individuals due to “the loss of rites, myths, societal markers and roles of institutions”.