Phyllis Galembo: Maske

For over two decades, Phyllis Galembo (born 1952) has documented cultural and religious traditions in Africa and the African Diaspora. Traveling widely throughout western and central Africa, and regularly to Haiti, her subjects are participants in masquerade events–traditional African ceremonies and contemporary costume parties and carnivals–who use costume, body paint and masks to create mythic characters. Sometimes entertaining and humorous, often dark and frightening, her portraits document and describe the transformative power of the mask. With a title derived from the Haitian Creole word maske, meaning “to wear a mask,” this album features a selection of more than 100 of the best of Galembo’s masquerade photographs to date, organized in country-based chapters, each with her own commentary. Now back in print by popular demand, the book is introduced by art historian and curator Chika Okeke-Agulu (himself a masquerade participant during his childhood in Nigeria), for whom Galembo’s photographs raise questions about the survival and evolution of masquerade tradition in the 21st century.