Artistic description of this photograph: This photograph captures an intimate and sculptural scene, where three bodies merge into darkness. Light carves the contours of faces and muscles with dramatic intensity, turning flesh into an almost abstract material. The exchanged gazes and suspended gestures evoke poetic tension, oscillating between strength and vulnerability, presence and vanishing. The image becomes a silent choreography, where chiaroscuro reveals both the fragility and power of human connection.
Artistic description of the series: The Body and Light series explores the body as a living sculpture, constantly in dialogue with shadow and light. Inspired by contemporary dance, it questions how movement inscribes the body within space and time. The deep contrasts of black and white invite contemplation of identity’s transformations, wavering between appearance and disappearance. Each image becomes a suspended scene, where light shapes the body as an emotional and narrative substance.
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.
