Artistic description of this photograph: This image stages a confrontation between identity and mask, between human presence and ancestral symbolism. Chiaroscuro reveals two female figures: one exposes her body to the light, while the other conceals her face behind a traditional mask, evoking a duality between intimacy and collective memory. The composition questions heritage, transmission, and the multiplicity of identities. Through the tension between flesh and mask, the photograph explores the fragile space where individual existence meets history and myth.
Artistic description of the series: The Body and Light series investigates the relationship of the body to space and time through the prism of movement and chiaroscuro. Inspired by contemporary dance and sculpture, it highlights transformations of identity, wavering between appearance and disappearance. Here, light acts as a substance that sculpts, fragments, and magnifies presences. Each image becomes a poetic scene, where bodies appear both as intimate territories and carriers of universal narratives.
Yawo WODY’s photographic practice delves into the fluid relationship between the human body, space, and light. Guided by a constant pursuit of balance, elegance, and poetic resonance, his work transforms photography into a choreographic language where movement becomes narrative.
His series “Corps et lumière” (Body and Light) embodies this approach. Inspired by his passion for contemporary dance and enriched through collaborations with dancers and choreographers from various companies, the series unfolds in three chapters, questioning: the body’s relationship with time, its inscription in space, and the transformations of identity it undergoes.
WODY sculpts his subjects with light, using both natural and artificial sources to reveal subtle details of form, texture, and emotion. His black-and-white images, often set against deep, minimalist backgrounds, create a tension between appearance and dissolution. Each photograph becomes a visual narrative, where energy, intimacy, and abstraction coexist.
Beyond aesthetics, his work engages with social and political questions, reflecting on themes such as power dynamics, territoriality, identity, and the evolving state of the world. Through his lens, Yawo WODY invites viewers into a space where the human body becomes a living sculpture, oscillating between fragility and transcendence.
Yawo WODY is a self-taught photographer, exhibition curator, and artistic director based in Lomé, Togo. His visual universe explores the interactions between the body, light, and movement, drawing inspiration from contemporary dance and three-dimensional forms.
2025 – Venice Architecture Biennale (Italy) Featured in the Togo Pavilion, curated by the Palais de Lomé
2023 – AKAA Art Fair (Also Known As Africa), Paris Presented the series “Corps et lumière|Body and Light.”
2022 – Group Exhibition, Palais de Lomé (Togo).
2021 – Festival of Contemporary Arts, Cotonou, Benin.
2020 – Solo Exhibition “Ombres et Présences | Shadows and Presences,” Lomé.
