Hotel Afrique - an interview with Stuart Franklin

Stuart Franklin, President of Magnum Photos, has just published a book of photographs taken in and around hotels in Africa. He agreed to be interviewed about Hotel Afrique for Art and Allusion.

Nigel : Why did you focus on hotels for this project?

Stuart: I wanted there to be a tension between the inside of the hotel - often plush, and set out according to international standards - with the locally specific exterior.  Sometimes these tensions collide, as in the photograph of the English-style armchairs in a tent in the Serengeti.  Here the landscape is seen through the mosquito netting.  Sometimes the exteriors is seen through the wall of the hotel, as in Zanzibar where people cavorting on the beach are frozen in the circular patterns of the hotel fence.

Nigel: What special qualities do they have that reveal important aspects of Africa?

Stuart: Well the interiors mostly depict a hybrid space between global design and local culture, so that there are African woodcarvings or paintings set amongst international hotel culture.

Nigel: What would you say to someone who thought you were aestheticizing elements of Africa, focussing on surface visual juxtapositions rather than the more sinister aspects of corruption, violence and crime?

Stuart: I'd say they were right, although I hope that the scent of corruption is evident in some of the photographs, especially from Niger.

Nigel: Could you pick out one of your favourite images, describe it, and say what you were trying to do with the photograph.

Stuart: I have two favourite photographs - the man putting on a tie for the first time to go to work in a hotel in Accra, and the photograph, shot through a window, of men by a pool and cars streaming down a highway in Abidjan.  I'll talk about this picture.  For me it works on two levels. Hotels engage with a form of persuasive representation that will always seek to hide any faults (in the hotel itself or environment) and play up anything positive even if not quite true.  Here I am reminded of hotel ads that claim to have stunning views beside the beach and omit the 6 lane highway just outside.  The same with swimming pools: they should never look over a motorway. On another level the image shows these white (I am guessing) business visitors in the pool.  The space they enjoy is small and discrete, almost like birds in tree above the regular ebb and flow of human activity.  Here I sought to make clear this separation between the people in the picture and the rest of Africa - a distance they themselves seek..

Nigel: Africa is very diverse...

Stuart: Yes!

Nigel: What is your next project?  A book to be called 'Footprint' on the changing landscape of Europe in the face of climate change. [Some of the images from this project are available from www.stuartfranklin.com]

Nigel: Thank you very much.

Hotel Afrique is published by Dewi Lewis Publishing. All images on this page are copyright Stuart Franklin.

Comments

[Paris Hotels]

I bought hes book recently- it sure is amazing, and I finally could show something to friends who had a rough time realizing the realities of Nigeria- I have been there for a few weeks for work a year ago and the visit was simply shocking. Honestly the choice to shoot the hotels is not surprising at all to me- because the contrast between the outside every day life and the interior of these hotels is enormous.

[colon cleanse]

After an extensive search I was finally able to locate one major
manufacturer of the capsules used in the Japanese Capsule Hotels.

[Jordans Sneakers]

Your blog picture, I like it very much, so have a pure heart, the children stood in the bustling fidgety city.

[Jordans Sneakers]

Your blog picture, I like it very much, so have a pure heart, the children stood in the bustling fidgety city.

[Jo]

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