Five photographic visions of the world intersect at MoMo

It’s also this take-it-as-it-comes attitude that allows Odhiambo to approach his subjects on the streets of Kibera and take photos that show a community that few outsiders are privy to: one of joy, of flamboyant colors and clothes, and of life. Like that of the image of Steven, a local filmmaker and glamorous man in a yellow jacket, who strikes a pose, thus a dancer on a heap of smoking trash.

Kibera is a violent place, where poverty mingles with crime.

“Being born in a slum is a very crazy thing,” Odhiambo says. “There’s harassment, you see men beating men, kids thrown in the dump.” Odhiambo has had his photographic equipment stolen twice , and many people he approaches curse and shout at him and push him away.

And yet, there is beauty everywhere in Kibera, Odhiambo says. His approach? Learn to read a potential subject before you even approach them, gauge them for openness and potential aggression, and know how to coax them into agreeing to a photo ... or 10.

This particular photograph Odhiambo took of the man in the yellow jacket in Kibera is part of In the Time of Spirits, a new international group exhibition of photography on exhibit at MoMo Santa Fe from July 6 through September 8, and at MoMo Taos, September 21 through November 23.

For the exhibit, Bill Shapiro — former editor-in-chief of LIFE Magazine and a Taos resident — decided to showcase the work of five photographers whom American audiences may be unaware of or are only known primarily in curated photographic circles. The five photographers live outside the U.S. and in addition to Odhiambo are Avani Rai (India), Adeolu Osibodu (Nigeria and U.K.), Lula (Germany), and the legendary Raúl Cañibano (Cuba).

All five have distinctive styles, almost at opposite ends of and speckled across the aesthetic spectrum. Cañibano’s images are reminiscent of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s street photography, but are in Havana and the Cuban countryside and play on shadows that hint at magical realism from Gabriel García Marquez’s playbook. Lula’s work, on the other hand, shows a world through a veil and speaks to European fairy tales from northern forests and lakes.

Regardless of their style, what unites the artists is that not a single one of their photographs from In the Time of Spirits leaves their viewers passive — be prepared for your jaw to drop.

Like Odhiambo, Rai’s work at times focuses on street photography and photojournalism as well as photo shoots for glossy magazines. She walks with her camera up and down the busy streets of Mumbai, her current hometown, and other cities, big and small, of the subcontinent. Whereas Odhiambo courts his subjects and works to persuade them to agree to a few photos, Rai can afford to shoot first then ask — at least when it comes to questions of safety.

Mumbai is not as dangerous as Kibera, and when Rai misses a good shot or a photo opportunity, she gets angry with herself. “Over time, photography has become so tangible for me,” she says, “that if I don’t take that picture, and I don’t have evidence of what I saw, I don’t feel like I’ve experienced it.”

When she sees a scene that catches her eye, she first trails her camera downward. “I don’t want them to know [that I’ll take a photo] because I know the expression and their body language will change if they see me take it,” she says. “So I set my focus, my shutter, my everything on the ground, and I’m literally looking at my feet.

“I frame on the ground, I get my exposure correct on the ground. And I pick my camera up and almost like in a swing, I take the shot and move it away from them before they can even realize.” Only after the shot does she ask for permission, showing her subject the photo she’s taken.

Osibodu, who moved from Nigeria to the U.K. a few years ago and who works as photographer for many publications and organizations, says that while he may sometimes take spontaneous photos, he is most well-known for his aesthetic that requires precise scene-setting and a limitless imagination. His characters — and the term “characters” is more accurate than “subjects,” given that each of his photographs is a story of sorts — are often the same person, superimposed several times within the same image.

Osibodu also goes through phases of interest, he says, not unlike painters with colors and subjects. “For a period of time, I was really obsessed with water,” he says. His pictures at MoMo Santa Fe depict that phase. “Then, at some point, I was really intrigued by people sort of levitating, high up from the ground or leaping up.”

His staged photo shoots are only one element of his artistic project. Once he has taken the shots he needs, he puts his vision for each image through an intricate editorial process.

One of his In the Time of Spirits photographs shows three caped women with large hats walking through water. Their clothes and hats remind the viewer of Georgia O’Keeffe’s. And if you look closely, you’ll see that the three figures are, in fact, one person. The same is true for another image featured at MoMo Santa Fe. The photograph shows from profile two women with large hoop earrings — it’s as though they’re standing side by side, the ocean behind or in front of them. When Osibodu confirms that it’s the same person, the viewer pauses for a moment, confused, almost as though they are looking at two ghosts. ◀

Ania Hull is a journalist based in Albuquerque. She writes about the arts, environmental justice, and everything in between.