Namsa Leuba (born 1982) is a Swiss-Guinean art director and photographer. She studied at Swiss schools and afterwards at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her work mainly focuses on the African identity as seen through Western eyes, due to her Western education. According to an interview with “My Art Guides”,[1] she became interested in the animistic side of Guinean culture as a child. She even visited marabouts because of her intense interest in supernatural side to Guinea. She has had her work published in several magazines including I-D, Numéro, KALEIDOSCOPE, Foam, the Financial Times Magazine,[2] Interview, Vice Magazine, New York Magazine,[3] Wallpaper*, Libération, British Journal of Photography, and European Photography. In 2010, she won her first prize from Planche(s) contact festival de photographie de Deauville.[4] The subjects of the majority of her work are non-professional individuals. She claims that she does much of her casting on the street.[5] In 2021, her work was exhibited at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in a show titled Crossed Looks. It was the first solo exhibition of Leuba's work in the United States and included photographs taken in Guinea, South Africa, Nigeria, Benin, and Tahiti.[6]

Work by Namsa Leuba

Education

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Leuba was born in Switzerland to a Guinean mother and a Swiss father. She graduated from Lycée Jean-Piaget, a French-language secondary school in 2002. She later graduated from the School of Applied Arts (EAA) in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 2008. In 2011, she earned a bachelor of arts with an excellent mention in visual communication, major in photography from École cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL). She completed her postgraduate studies in photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York, called the PhotoGlobal Program. She later returned to ECAL and earned a master's degree with mention in art direction in 2015.

Notable works

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Ya Kala Ben

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Ya Kala Ben is one of Namsa Leuba’s most world renowned works. Leuba carried out this project on a trip to Conakry in Guinea where she became interested in the construction and destruction of bodies. For this project, she studied ritual artifacts common to the cosmology of Guineans which were statuettes that had ceremonial significance.[7] She recontextualized these sacred artifacts through a Western perspective. While doing the project, she was sometimes met with violent reactions of Guineans who saw her work as a sacrilege. Some were scared and others were stupefied.[4] She was even arrested at one point during the project.[5]

The pictures in this project depict disguised ceremonies, exorcism practices, in addition to acrobats who contort themselves into unique forms. The color palette of her pieces are desaturated with a classical composition.[8] Greens are common in her photos as well as oranges and reds. Many images are in black and white as well. Images tend to focus on one subject, many being centered in the photo, often showing the entire figure.

In one image, name unknown, a tarp-covered figure is centered around a striking orange background. The background is entirely dirt. The tarp the figure is covered in is green creating a strong contrast. At the end of one of the figure’s tarp-covered arms protrudes three slender sticks that extend to the ground.

Another image, name unknown, shows a woman against a forested background. She is painted from the torso up in red and wears a red skirt with white frills on the edges and towards the center.

Other images are less staged, showing several members from the community inside that community. There are images of people walking through a marketplace as well as people getting ready to slaughter an animal. Each image carries great cultural significance with it.

The V.U.C.A. Magazine

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The V.U.C.A. Magazine is a collaboration between Namsa Leuba and graphic designer Hugo Hoppmann and is an abbreviation for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous. It was created during the summer semester of 2010 at ECAL in Switzerland. The magazine showcases architecture, design, and interiors based on the theme of Ethno vs. Modern. The majority of the magazine in black and white although several pages contain blocks of color.[9]

Work

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Date Name Collaboration
Unknown Ndebele Patterns None
Unknown Plantes None
2010 V.U.C.A. Magazine Hugo Hoppmann
2011 What We Want What We Believe In None
2011 Deauville 2011 For Planche(s) Contact 2011- festival de photographie de Deauville
2011 Ya Kala Ben None
2012 Cocktail For WAD magazine n° 53
2012 The African Queens For New York Magazine
2014 Zulu Kids None
2014 The Kingdom of Mountains None
2015 NGL (New Generation Lagos) TZar, Tokyo James, Re Bahia, I Am Isigo, Deco, Maxivive
2015 Khoi San None
2015 ISIGQI None
2015 Tonköma None
2016 The Kings Christian Lacroix

Awards and nominations

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Year Award Category Result
2006 l’art nouveau Poster Project <<Sapin>> Mentioned
2007 CIFOM Website 3rd prize
Hotel Beau-Rivage Video Clip 3rd prize
2010 Planche(s) contact festival de photographie de Deauville 1st Prize
2011 Prix Elinchrom Awarded to a graduate student unit photography has done an excellent dissertation Awarded
Prix BCV To reward a student of the unity of photography who has made the overall quality of his work Awarded
Prix ECAL Awarded to a graduate student unit photography has done an excellent dissertation Awarded
2012 Hyères PhotoGlobal Prize Awarded
Photo Annual Awards Emotion series 1st Prize
2013 Flash Forward Emerging Photographers Award United States Awarded
PDN’s 2013 Photo Annual Award PDN Photo Annual Awarded
Magenta Foundation’s prize Emerging Photographers Awarded
2015 Prix Pictet Disorder Nominated
Foam Paul Huf Award Nominated

References

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  1. ^ "African Identities through Western Eyes, an interview with Namsa Leuba | My Art Guides". myartguides.com. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
  2. ^ "Ini Archibong: 'I created my own version of success'". Financial Times. 2021-06-01. Retrieved 2022-10-01.
  3. ^ "The African Queens: Namsa Leuba Plays with Falls Best Knits".
  4. ^ a b "NAMSA LEUBA". www.namsaleuba.com. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
  5. ^ a b "Armory Africa Focus Preview: A Conversation with Namsa Leuba". Aperture Foundation NY. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
  6. ^ "CROSSED LOOKS". Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. Retrieved 2022-10-01.
  7. ^ "Namsa Leuba". African Photography Network. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
  8. ^ "Namsa Leuba | The Art of Deconstruction | Another Africa". www.anotherafrica.net. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
  9. ^ "NAMSA LEUBA". www.namsaleuba.com. Retrieved 2016-12-08.