Joana Choumali

Joana Choumali (1974- ) is an Ivorian photographer whose work focuses on conceptual photography and mixed media and explores issues of identity and diversity of African cultures. Choumali embroiders directly on images completing the act of creating the photographed image with a slow and meditative gesture. Her work explores various themes from ancestral histories told through garments to complex, contradictory notions of femininity, beauty, and body image in contemporary Africa.⁠ Choumali is the first African winner of the Prix Pictet, an annual honor for photography and sustainability, which she won in 2019 for her series Ça Va Aller.