Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou is one of the pre-eminent photographers of the Republic of Benin. He learnt how to use a camera from his father Joseph Moise Agbodjelou, one of Benin’s most well-known photographers. With a mobile studio they travelled together through Benin’s villages, taking portrait photographs, positioning their subjects in front of multi-coloured cloths, and accessorising them with a diverse range of props. Agbodjelou fuses modern and traditional influences, drawing on the traditions of colonial studio photography from the 1960s and 1970s, made famous by artists such as Seydou Keïta. Agbodjelou is the Founder and Director of the first photographic school in Benin, which opened in 2013.
Chromogenic prints are printed on paper that has at least three emulsion layers containing invisible dyes and silver salts. Each emulsion layer is sensitive to a different primary colour of light (red, green or blue). The development process converts the hidden dyes to visible colour depending on the amount of light it was exposed to. This type of paper is commonly used to print from colour negatives or digital files to produce a full-colour image. It can also be used to print black-and-white images, giving softer grain and less contrast than gelatin silver prints. Commonly known as c-type prints, chromogenic processing was developed in the 1940s and widely used for colour printing, including for domestic snapshots. While recent years have seen this process accompanied by ink-jet and digital printing technologies, chromogenic printing still remains in use to this day.
