Akpomi Gnôgnô Assiè
- meaning "May the earth bend before him who stands against me" in Baoulé.
Inspired by this proverb inscribed on a wall in the small village of Amanikro, this series seeks to show a new side of cocoa farmers in Côte d'Ivoire. Their portraits and daily activities reveal a community where spirituality, family and artistic expression are paramount.
Over the course of a week, I observed the lives of the villagers in Amanikro. While their daily routines revolve around cocoa production, they are guided by their faith in community and family unity. I focused on capturing moments of joy in the village - children playing at first light, men gathered around the awalé drinking homemade Koutoukou (traditional brandy), the women making fresh Attiéké. The aim of this series is to bring the public closer to the daily lives of the villagers of Amanikro and the communities behind cocoa production.
For this series, I chose to photograph using a medium-format film camera in order to match the slow, simple pace of the village and to be able to get closer to the cocoa-growing community, to integrate and share in their intimate lives and rituals.
This project was completed as part of the NOOR Foundation Visual Storytelling Programme in partnership with Tony's Chocolonely in Amanikro, Côte d’Ivoire.
Clara Watt (b. 1995) is a Senegalese-Canadian photographer based in France, whose work is infused with themes of identity, culture and social justice, using portraiture to explore stories of racial, gender and women's empowerment. Through both analogue and digital photography, she strives to bridge the gap between fine art, social documentary, and advocacy, creating visual narratives to illustrate the multifaceted human experience. Clara's work is primarily motivated by the intimate relationships fostered with her subjects, often overlapping photo and text to ensure her subjects' voice and agency over their stories remains present. Striving to work with available natural light and enjoying medium format film photography, Clara finds vulnerability and intimacy through this slower, more intentional process.
Clara's work has been published in various publications, including the New York Times, Le Monde, Business Insider, HuffPost & Suitcase Magazine. She was selected as Runner Up in the 2021 Julia Margaret Cameron Award, and as the recipient of Black Women Photographers x Nikon's inaugural Project Grant, to fund a personal portrait series exploring sexual assault and harassment against women. Her work was shortlisted for the OD Photo Prize 2022, and was a finalist in the 2023 Felix Schoeller Award. She exhibited a portrait series documenting Ghana's LGBTQ+ community as part of the Pride Photo Award, traveling across the Netherlands until February 2024 and exhibited at Photo Saint Germain 2023. She was selected as a finalist for the 2024 Prix Virginia, and she will be exhibiting work at the upcoming 2024 Indian Photo Festival, Hyderabad, and the 2024 Rotlicht Festival in Vienna.