Our City

AYA Editions presents ‘Our City' which explores the real and imagined city through the lenses of six young West African female photographers; Hady Berry, Keren Lasme, Clarissa Rötzel, ASK, Chantal Azari and Azumi.

As both a documentation of the present and an investigation into the future, these 30 portraits from early career photographers reclaim and reshape narratives through diverse feminine perspectives. In capturing the movements and moments of urban life across West Africa, ‘Our City’ newly defines concepts of space and place through future finding and memory making. 

From the shores of Grand Bassam to the streets of Accra and the banks of Saint Louis, the collection narrates each woman’s journey and challenges the stories too often told by men that came before them. In doing so, the images celebrate the female gaze, reminding us that among the chaos, there is calm, through desperation, there is beauty, and in mundanity, there is joy, play and patience. 

Whilst firmly rooted in these women’s experiences, ‘Our City’ moves beyond representation to explore the varied and divergent photographic practices that take us through fashion, landscape, photojournalism and street photography, reminding us that cities are neither static nor linear and that they are as much imagined as they are real.