Portrait of photographer Michael Tsegaye
Design Indaba
Cape Town, South Africa
Ethiopian artist and photographer Michael Tsegaye was selected by Design Indaba to take part in our collaborative initiative with Google Arts & Culture, titled Colours of Africa. Africa is known for its bold, unapologetic use of colour. Stories are told in pigments, tones and hues; a kaleidoscope as diverse as the cultures and peoples of the continent. For the initiative, we asked 60 African creatives to capture the unique spirit of their country in a colour which represents home to them. The projects they have created are personal and distinct stories of Africa, put into images, videos, texts and illustrations. Each artist has also attempted to articulate what being African means to their identity and view of the world.
- Title: Portrait of photographer Michael Tsegaye
- Original Source: Design Indaba
- What it Means to be African: Africa has a young population, and there is a thriving, new energy that represents what it means to be African.
- Subject: Michael Tsegaye
- Rationale: I’ve lived in Addis Ababa all my life. In the last couple of decades construction has been booming. Buildings are going up all over the city, so I chose a colour that represents this change, this “progress” – the colour of development. The plastic sheeting used to protect civilians from the building works and scaffolding that rises into the sky is a particular shade of blue. Almost like the sail of a ship, sailing in on the crest of a wave of change. Architecture tells the story of a place. In the name of development, pages are being torn out from the history of the city. Old neighbourhoods are disappearing. I’ve spent many years documenting these neighbourhoods before they are knocked down, and I always exhibit these photos in black and white. They are memories now. This particular blue marks the coming of a new city, of Future Memories.
- Project: Colors of Africa
- Location: Ethiopia
- Lead Quote: The plastic sheeting used to protect civilians from the building works and scaffolding that rises into the sky is a particular shade of blue. Almost like the sail of a ship
- Hex Code: 0361C9
- Colour Choice: Construction Blue
- Biography: Born in 1975, Michael Tsegaye lives and works in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He received his diploma in painting from Addis Ababa University’s School of Fine Arts & Design in 2002, but soon switched to photography as his principal medium of creative self-expression. Since 2006, Tsegaye has worked internationally with prestigious publishing houses, press agencies and NGOs, including Médecins Sans Frontières and UNESCO, specialising in documentary photography. Tsegaye’s artistic oeuvre is greatly inspired by the history and culture of Ethiopia and its sprawling capital Addis Ababa. His portraiture, landscapes and cityscapes are an ongoing visual story of the simple unadorned – and often vanishing as urbanization and technological progress set in – traditional ways of life.
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