Daniele Tamagni was fascinated by human beings' search for identity through clothing, and especially of those existing on the margins of society. Trained originally as an art historian, Tamagni captured the unique street style in burgeoning African urban spaces, such as Brazzaville, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Dakar, where he sought and found individualistic identity. In 2007, he won the Canon Young Photographer Award with a project about the Congolese dandies, Sapeurs of Brazzaville, and in 2010, the International Center of Photography Infinity Award, fashion category. In 2011, he won the World Press Photo, Arts & Humanity category for his project on the Cholitas Luchadores, female wrestlers of Bolivia. Tamagni was fascinated by how the wrestlers not only take on a male-dominated sport but also use their clothes as a means of validating their act and positioning themselves in their community.
Read MoreTamagni produced several successful photography books including the iconic Gentlemen of Bacongo, 2009 in which designer Paul Smith wrote the preface and found inspiration for his 2010 spring/summer collection, and Fashion Tribes in 2014, with Afro-American actress and social activist Rosario Dawson. October Gallery first showed his work in an exhibition with Ghanaian photographer James Barnor in 2016. He has been exhibited worldwide, with works in private and major public collections including Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, USA; Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP), Chicago, USA; Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA; and Brighton Museum, Brighton, UK.
Text courtesy October Gallery.
