Produced in collaboration with the Rencontres d’Arles, the exhibition presents the work of photographer Paul Kodjo, who was a key observer of the transformations of the Côte d’Ivoire in the 1970s as it underwent a process of cultural emancipation.

“Photoromance” is the first monographic exhibition dedicated to the work of Ivorian photographer Paul Kodjo in France. A major figure of the country’s post-independence culture, Kodjo developed a unique body of work which explores the links between image and narrative, in particular through the photoroman [photonovel] and documentary genres. The exhibition retraces his trajectory, from his years in Paris to his return to Abidjan in 1970, where he founded MAMEDIS, a photography, film and publishing agency. By blending fiction with representations of social life, Kodjo gave a narrative form to the transformations of a country in the midst of a process of cultural emancipation.