Wall of Fame/November: Sigurd Fandango
Sigurd Fandango, Nairobi, Kenya 2010. Property of Preus museum collections.
The photographer Sigurd Fandango (b. 1986) is in dialog with a humanistic tradition in photography which does not focus on need and suffering, but on humanity's positive aspects. He portrays conditions and not news events; his photographs do not resemble the snapshots we are accustomed to in the news-media image.
Fandango's photographs are not without humor. Nor is he afraid to use visual means that traditionally belong to another genre than the dogmatic black-and-white documentary photography of the 1960s and 1970s. His use of colors and light can be reminiscent of advertising photography.
Thus the images capture our attention, and we become open to entering into the story he wants to tell—about Africa's growing middle class, gold miners in Ghana, Chinese people building the new Africa, or volunteers guarding the USA-Mexico border with weapons to stop illegal immigrants.
Sigurd Fandango is a photographer for D2, the weekend magazine in the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv.