Omar Victor Diop’s Distinctive Approach to Portraiture

© Omar Victor Diop

© Omar Victor Diop

© Omar Victor Diop

© Omar Victor Diop

© Omar Victor Diop

© Omar Victor Diop

© Omar Victor Diop

The critically acclaimed Senegalese contemporary artist Omar Victor Diop’s striking photographs capture modern African sensibilities and often focus on a recasting of history, the representation of diasporic experiences, and global politics of black resistance.

Combining photography with other art forms, Omar Victor Diop’s remarkable body of work includes fine art, fashion, design, and portrait photography. Using artistic self-portraiture as a key tool to engage with complex representational politics, community embodiment, and ideas of self-fashioning, his practice is characterized by meticulously staged, dramatic imagery in which the artist himself appears as the main visual protagonist and interlocutor.

“Self-portraiture has become a way for me to embody historical figures that are important and relevant to current social conversations. Having them all appear with the same face they become a part of the same human army marching towards progress, dignity, and humanity. For me, it emphasizes the fact that I could have been one of them. Through my work I pay homage to them.” —Omar Victor Diop

For more information, visit Fotografiska Tallinn.