Anthea Spivey
Can you tell us about yourself, your creative practice and what got you into photography ?
Hello hello, I’m Anthea Spivey. I’m a documentary photographer currently based in Paris, France. I am of Australian/New Zealand descent, but I spent the majority of my life in Africa. I grew up in Tanzania and Senegal and then moved to the UK for university. I would say that my practice revolves around African culture and tradition and social issues. I was lucky enough that both of my parents were avid photographers; they photographed my siblings and I as we grew up which made me very comfortable around cameras, so it made sense that photography was an accessible route for me to follow as a career. Instead of considering photography as a hobby, my parents heavily supported me and allowed me to nurture this passion without it feeling like it was something to simply do on occasion. I studied photography at university and became more aware of the industry that I now work in.
Two Projects that really stand out are They Don't Die, They Disappear and Lutteurs, Can you tell us a bit more about the projects and how they came about ?
They Don’t Die, They Disappear was my end of year project for my degree at university. I had a lot of prior knowledge of the stigmas and myths that went along with the concept of albinism in Africa from growing up in Tanzania. I was only very young when we left Arusha, I was 8, but even at that age I knew that people who had albinism were never considered safe at any time, and noticed that people had to walk in pairs or in groups, I just never completely understood why. But as an adult it became abundantly clear, they were targets and rituals involving ‘black magic’ played an important role in fueling the danger for these people. Some of these myths include the idea that possessing the blood of an albino will bring money or gold. That having intercourse with someone with the condition will cure you of HIV, that the condition stems down from incest, which brings a lot of shame to families, and that certain body parts can improve the male sex hormone. I started working with El Hadji Gueye, who created an association called Club Albinos SN, based in Dakar, the capital.
He works with people from across the country supplying sunscreen, lightweight clothing, and protective eyewear to ease some of the difficulties. The main aim of the project was to raise awareness for people with albinism in Senegal and to start getting donations of the mentioned items as they are incredibly expensive and hard to come by in many rural areas. Sunscreen alone can cost 1/6th of the monthly income, so many people decide not to buy it, and deal with the harsh effects on their skin. I have been working on this project for over a year and a half, but because of the pandemic I have not been able to go back to Senegal, although we are still getting donations of sunscreen from around the world.
The project on the Senegalese wrestlers, Lutteurs, came about many years ago during a foundation year in the UK. I wanted to explore the theme of masculinity in Senegalese culture and decided to narrow in on masculinity in combat sports. Wrestling is the national sport of Senegal and is taken incredibly seriously. The world of Senegalese wrestling is glamorous and controversial, and religious, and completely fascinating to me, although embarrassingly, I have still not attended a proper wrestling match in one of the major stadiums yet. I was allowed to photograph at one of the country’s famous training grounds where I got to watch the best of the best do their thing.
I was the only woman on the grounds and took this as an opportunity to take advantage of the situation, I barely put my camera down. I then wanted to take this to the next level and seek out wrestlers that would allow me to photograph them in a more editorial context where I was able to interact with a different environment. I thought of the country’s pink salt lake, Lac Rose/Retba. I met two young wrestlers and spent the day photographing them training and performing in and next to the lake. The photos that came out of it really changed the way I normally work because I got to slow the whole process down and focus on what elements I liked.
In December I found myself back at home in Senegal for the holidays and decided to go back and revisit the project to see if I could find new perspectives in the story. I wanted to focus more on the fine art element of the story. How the body contorts and moves, how the body makes these incredibly complex and almost geometric shapes. I’m really proud of the work that came out of it, and it was really interesting to see how these young men had changed over the years.
Do you see these projects as a concluded body of work or is there more to say?
I don’t really like to think of any project as being concluded. They Don’t Die, They Disappear is 100% not a finished project, I photographed a lot of children and young people that I formed friendships with, and want to be able to see them grow. I consider this a life’s work, and plan on working on it for a long time. I also want to be able to photograph people with albinism across the African continent and intend on going back to Tanzania at some point when I can afford it, and start working there too. The same goes for the Lutteurs project, there is still a lot to focus on, I also know that a lot more young women are practicing and participating in the sport which gives me hope that I can photograph this too.
What inspires you as an artist? and where does the inspiration come from?
I am inspired by so many things that it would be almost impossible for me to specify exactly what they are. I love cinematography, and really appreciate the use of colour in film in regards to setting a tone. It might be very cliche but I am a massive fan of Wes Anderson, and adore his films. The Darjeeling Limited is the first that comes to mind for me, this is my favourite movie. The way he uses colour to represent a time or place is so impressive and sparks only positive emotions for me each time I watch his work.
In terms of photographers that inspire me I tend to veer in the direction of pure photojournalism. I admire the work of conflict photographers, how people can find the beauty and the chaos, whilst bringing to light important stories that absolutely need to be told. A couple of examples of photographers I think exemplify this would be Tim Hetherington, Finbarr O’Reilly, and Lynsey Addario.
You also have a podcast called “Smash n Bounce”, Can you tell us a little bit more about what you talk about and the reasons for starting something completely different to photography?
Smash & Bounce came about purely because my best friend, Tigris Li, and I, realised that our conversations during the lockdown were worthy of public listening. We would spend hours a day talking to each other touching on a massive spectrum of conversations and topics. Simply put, Tigris and I love to talk, and we genuinely thought that we have the capability to share what we talk about with people who would also like to listen. We realised that we both have fascinating networks of people in the creative fields who could share their insights with us and with others. The two of us both have attended or are currently attending art school, and have had vastly different experiences, so we decided to make one of the episodes solely about these experiences. This is only the beginning for us, we’re lucky enough that we work very well together and balance each other out. I would compare ourselves to fire and ice. Tigris is calming and kind and patient, whereas I am impulsive and passionate depending on the topic.
I think that the podcast is a way for us both to have some more creative outlets during a time where a lot of us feel a bit lost and confused. I am definitely not putting my camera on the side and stepping into the podcasting world full time, but it is definitely something that we can both afford to spend time on, it doesn’t take an incredibly long time to do, and we would still be having these conversations regardless of whether a microphone is in front of us or not. In short, we describe our podcast as two creative girls in their early twenties, living on their own in different cities, navigating their way through life whilst sharing all the outrageous details with an audience.
What are your plans for the future and are you working on any new projects/work?
At the moment my future plans are slightly on hold. I had a lot of plans for 2020 that I’ve had to push back unfortunately, but this only means that 2021 will be all the more exciting. I would really like to stay in Paris and continue freelancing whilst also getting across to Senegal every now and then to work on other projects. I am currently working on a major project that will require a lot of time spent on meticulous planning which is heavily based in West Africa. I can’t give too much away as it is still very much in the early stages of development but if it comes to fruition then I do believe that it will be an important project for my career.
Interview by - Jai Toor