Blue Africa is a response to my journey to Morocco at a time where I was studying the Greek myth “Orpheus”, by Jean Cocteau, which visually appealed to me and instantly flashed memories of old pictures of my family, in my head. They were originally rooted in Mozambique where they lived and experienced some of their most important moments in life. About to travel to the same Africa myself, the connection was instantaneous and it only grew bigger, prompting a very intense and emotional response, which was reflected in my work.
This body of work aims to combine two objects of memory exploring physically, and conceptually, different narratives. From the family photography archives, I seek to retell their memories and through them I was inspired to create my own, linking our two stories and moments together.
The use of the cyanotype process and its colour is a parallel to the melancholic nature of the original photographs and it is also heavily connected to the reference that is most influential to me: water.