Photoromance - Paul Kodjo

“Paul Kodjo: Photoromance” is the first major solo exhibition by the Ivorian photographer Paul Kodjo in France. A leading figure in building post-independence Ivorian visual culture, he is one of the first African photographers to explore the genre of the photoromance, not only for its narrative potential but also for the new possibilities offered by cinematic language in the creation of still images. Opening October 21 at the Palais de Tokyo.

Mixing photographs from his photoromances with a broader corpus, most of which has never been exhibited before, this exhibition traces his trajectory from the 1960s and his move to Paris in the 1970s, and his return to Abidjan, where he founded the agency MAMEDIS (Mass Media Service), which offered services in photography, cinema, and publishing.

It is within this framework that Kodjo produced his first photoromances, which quickly became the heart of the agency’s output. Published as early as 1971 in the weekly Ivoire Dimanche, these romance comedies with twists, inspired by European photoromances and notably Italian ones, helped establish the aesthetic and narrative codes of an Ivorian visual education in matters of the heart. These works continued to influence the national audiovisual production, particularly in the 2000s.

Shot in public spaces or domestic interiors, these photoromances also mirror the social and economic transformations of the country during the “Ivorian miracle,” a period of prosperity in the 1960s–1970s that fostered the country’s cultural dynamism and enabled new access to modern, globally connected consumption. As the photoromancer of this Ivorian miracle, Kodjo also brings his artistic vision, his cinematic framings, and his taste for intrigue to his documentary work, where he guides us through Abidjan’s festive nights, the era’s fashion trends, and urban sociabilities.

The presented corpus of photos reaches us thanks to more than fifteen years of preservation work carried out by the organization Les Rencontres du Sud, founded by Ivorian photographer Ananias Léki Dago. A new phase of preserving the negatives was launched in 2025 thanks to the support of UCLA’s Modern Endangered Archive program.

This project has been designated Bicentennial of Photography by the Ministry of Culture and is part of the official Bicentennial program, from September 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027.