EYOEAL KEFYALEW:
LIGHT AND MEMORY
A man stands on a street corner under an umbrella, face veiled by a shadow formed by the piercing sun. Another passerby’s shadow is reflected on the surface, complicating the composition and revealing the multiple layers that exist in a two dimensional image. We are reminded that there is a world behind the photographer, and how it leaks into the reality he chooses to create. Even though the camera has a second to capture an image, we are once again reminded that no one can escape the light.
Born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, photographer Eyoeal Kefyalew, is wielding this light to juxtapose the comfortable and familiar with the dark and heavy elements of the environments we exist in.
“I started writing about what I was curious about, instead of just going out to shoot. I started
asking myself these questions and I used photography as a way to explore that curiosity.”
Ever too often, contemporary photographers on the continent find themselves having to navigate the tumultuous terrain of the past, and the stigmas inherited by the present, when it comes to the photo. The relationship between photo and place is long and complicated: weaponized by the Western pseudo explorers of yesteryear, and feared by the people who saw, and heard of what happened to those that were ‘captured’ by the lens. Following the 1973 deposition of famed Ethiopian leader, Haile Selassie, via a military coup - the country was thrust into communist rule and a subsequent civil war with Somalia, devastating droughts brought about famine in the 1980s, and surely a myriad of other quiet tragedies that went undocumented, lasting until 1991.
Our conversation shifts to the challenges of image-making in Addis Ababa faced with this history, “I was reading somewhere about how it was illegal to photograph in public during the time of the regime. The regime lasted 17 years. You could only photograph in studios, so people still find it strange, it’s getting better now because of social media but it’s difficult.” says Kefyalew.
This context adds another layer to Kefyalew’s bodies of work, The Ordinary I & II, where he explores the streets of Ethiopia looking for the seemingly unremarkable and familiar, but in turn exposes us to a world of colour that was previously unseen.
“I started out as a street photographer, so I feel comfortable going out and taking images. But as I kept working, I wanted to include more in my images instead of taking things out. I wanted to add more context, I started thinking about how in ten, twenty years all the things we don’t notice will start to disappear.”
This shift has already begun to happen as initiatives to ‘beautify’ major cities have changed the landscapes and the vernacular landmarks, “Most of the things I’ve photographed in the past are already gone.”
Recently, Kefyalew’s lens has re-centered itself to the familial, resulting in a fragmented portrait of his uncle and a glimpse into his ancestral history. The Eritrean-Ethiopian war, also known as the Badme War, was a major armed conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea that took place between May 1998 and June 2000. Eyoeal’s body of work, Distant Memories, focuses on his uncle’s deportation from Addis to Asmara during the aforementioned war, and speaks to the lasting impact of war on families, the work aims to shed light on the often overlooked human toll of conflict.
“My mother was four when she moved from Eritrea to Ethiopia. It was sort of a family secret, and she was very strict about it as there was the possibility of getting deported. I think about those past stories, there are so many people who lost something.”
The looming fear proved to be justified as Eyoeal’s uncle was then deported, “They just took him away one day, in a way he left with nothing.”
Following the deportation to Eritrea, his uncle’s girlfriend at the time dropped off a briefcase filled with his belongings, from cassettes to old family photographs. “As a kid, I wanted to ask questions. Even his funeral was here in Addis but he was buried in another country. I had his stuff, but I don't really have a memory of him.” He says sincerely. The series, which was recently exhibited at the Nitja Senter in Lillistrøm, Norway as part of the Art Inspire Award, consists of archival-like images of books, pamphlets, cassettes, photographs and magazines serve as a reflection of his uncle’s life, and for Kefyalew, an entry point into discovering this person who’s removal left an indispensable void in his family.
“When we were young, we were told not to touch the briefcase but we did, playing with the old cassettes and drawing on the catalogues. I understand now that these things were like a connection to him.”
The process of collecting more items has taken years, whether from asking his aunts and uncles for objects or rummaging in the spaces where we leave things from our past, Eyoeal began to form a memory of his uncle through the memories of others, “Even though I don’t really remember much, I started to understand how he was by also collecting stories from his brothers and sisters.”
“In a way, I feel closer to him.”
Instagram: eyoeal_kefyalew
