Togo Photo Festival 2025 has arrived. Founded and directed by Ako Atikossie and Giulia Brivio, its goal is to provide international visibility and create new opportunities for emerging photographers from Togo and West Africa. “For centuries, the representation of Africa has been filtered through a colonial lens that turned the other into an object, stripping it of its voice,” they explain. “Today, a new generation of African curators, artists and thinkers has overturned that perspective, restoring photography to the centre of an autonomous language capable of influencing the worlds of contemporary art, fashion and architecture.” Here, photography is not just a tool to document reality, but it has the potential to liberate storytellers and give artists the power to rethink the world from scratch. This visionary potential lies at the heart of the festival’s curatorial approach, celebrating photography’s ability to create new visual narratives by blending personal experience, collective memory and invisible lineages in exciting new ways.
The line-up includes Lina Mensah. She turns her lens on a group of extraordinary women in the cocoa-growing community of Amanikro, Côte d’Ivoire, who are committed to environmentally friendly agriculture. The series documents how the group have tackled the threat of cocoa monoculture, which depleted the land and weakened soil fertility. In her description of the series, Mensah writes: “Their impact extends beyond the land. These women also play a vital role in the social fabric of the community. They gather to share their knowledge, celebrate successes and support one another in overcoming challenges.” Guardians of the Land features Polariod snapshots of individual woman, which were then placed onto the branches of a cacao tree. Mensah continues: “This concept establishes an evocative link between the idea of a family tree and the cacao plant, symbolising a connection deeper than simple kinship.”
There are also contributions from Delali Ayivi, a Togolese-German photographer and Forbes 30 Under 30. She is internationally recognised for a visual language defined by colour, movement and fashion – pushing beyond outdated, singular narratives of Togo and its diaspora. Elsewhere, David Nana Opoku Ansah’s Area Boys explores themes of freedom, vulnerability and the meaning of truth, whilst Ishalo Akpo experiments with the possibility of digital mediums, mixing modernity and tradition to consider the fludity of identity.
The festival launches with three photography shows, featuring 15 such creatives, which will be accompanied by inspiring masterclasses and workshops. Moreover, Harmattan doesn’t end in Togo. The works will be published in a catalogue in April 2026, before the festival evolves into a travelling display with stops in Lugano, Switzerland, and Milan, Italy. Here, the event will reach new audiences and broaden the international conversation around contemporary African photography. This is surely one to watch.
Until 30 December: @togophotofestival
Words: Eleanor Sutherland
Image Credits:
1. Lina Mensah, Amanikro ti, 2023, photography, collage, diptych. Courtesy the artist.
2. Federica Landi, The Balld – Soft Touch.
3. © Fo Kwesi.
4. Malick Welli & Charlotte Brathwaite, All That We Carried – Passages.
