Antoine Tempé
Photo Agent
Picturetank
Dakar, Senegal
Antoine Tempé is a French-American photographer living and working in Dakar, Senegal. His main calling is documenting African contemporary cultural scenes through portraiture and photojournalism.
Born in Paris in 1960, Antoine arrived in New York in 1983 for what was supposed to be a short visit. Instantly mesmerized by the multicultural character of the city, he decided to stay and ended up living in Manhattan for the next twenty-five years. After first contemplating a career in contemporary dance he settled for a job on Wall Street while still pursuing his passion for dance on the side. In the early nineties he started taking photographs and his first subjects were naturally his dancer friends. At the same time he took upon documenting the new york nightlife for European and American magazines.
In the year 2000, Antoine left the world of finance to dedicate his life to photography. He embarked on a one-year photographic journey through West Africa and Madagascar. From this trip, he returned to the US with an enhanced passion for the continent and for its contemporary dance. This and subsequent extended stays on the continent lay the foundation for several bodies of work, among which “Dancers of Africa” and “Faces of Africa” have been exhibited worldwide, among other places; at the African Photography Biennial in Bamako, Mali (2007), at the Fondation Zinsou in Cotonou, Benin (2011), at the African Contemporary Art Biennial in Dakar, Senegal (2012), at the Fondation Donwahi in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (2015).
In 2010, after ten years of regular commutes between West Africa and New York, Antoine decided to settle in Dakar. It is from his lively Ouakam neighborhood that he now travels to other African countries, to Brazil or to New York, advancing his personal artistic projects while shooting commercial assignments, reporting on dance and music festivals or teaching photography workshops.
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