In Africa, fashion is rebellion: Daniele Tamagni's photographs on display in Trento, Italy

The Mart pays tribute to one of the most original and visionary photographers on the contemporary international scene: Daniele Tamagni (Milan, 1975 - 2017). Untimely deceased in 2017, Tamagni left a unique visual and cultural legacy, capable of combining photojournalism, fashion and identity research in a choral and powerfully political narrative. The exhibition Style Is Life, which can be visited at the Trento Civic Gallery from May 17 to July 6, 2025, is curated by Gabriele Lorenzoni, Chiara Bardelli Nonino, Aïda Muluneh and in collaboration with the Daniele Tamagni Foundation.

The exhibition brings together 80 photographs and documents seven years of the Milanese artist’s work, with an itinerary divided into six thematic sections. The Trentino installation follows the Milan preview in 2024 and anticipates the African edition, which opens simultaneously at the Museo Théodore Monod d’Art Africain - IFAN and theItalian Cultural Institute in Dakar. Two emblematic places in the photographer’s life: Trento, his adopted city, linked to family affections, and Dakar, among the most important destinations of his creative activity.

“Tamagni wanted to understand and photograph style,” says Chiara Bardelli Nonino, co-curator of the exhibition, “in particular that moment when taste from radically personal turns into a gesture, and willingly into a message, intended for others. His research always passed, first of all, through people: he wanted to get to know his subjects, to interweave friendships, to find out why they dressed a certain way, what they wanted to communicate and to whom.”

“Daniele Tamagni embarked on a mission to show how rich the African continent is in terms of diversity and stories not yet told,” explains co-curator Aïda Muluneh. From my perspective, art revolves around the transmission of our personal truths. Daniele has deliberately focused on individuals on the margins of society, those who defy norms, prioritizing self-affirmation over the approval of others, those who pave the way for their unique journeys. In my opinion, he has chosen narratives closely aligned with his heart and life path."

A global vision, a radical approach

Tamagni has been able to bring international attention to phenomena of cultural resistance and personal affirmation that arise from below, documenting urban communities capable of using fashion as a symbolic language and political gesture. A graduate in Cultural Heritage with a Master’s degree in Art History from the Catholic University of Milan, he began to devote himself to photography after the age of 30, managing in a few years to establish himself as an unmistakable voice thanks to a respectful, inclusive and never stereotyped perspective. Among the awards he has received are the Canon Young Photographer Award (2007), theICP Infinity Award (2010) and the World Press Photo Award (2011).

Daniele Tamagni’s photographs now appear in books, academic journals, and international magazines, and have been exhibited in a number of prominent institutions, including LACMA in Los Angeles, MoMA in New York, the Vitra Museum in Germany, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the Brighton Royal Pavilion and Museums, the Museo de Ciudad in Lisbon, the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, the Lentos Kunstmuseum in Austria, and the Prins Claus Fund in Amsterdam. His works are part of the permanent collections of museums in Europe and the United States: in addition to LACMA, MOCP and the Brighton Royal Pavilion already mentioned, the Houston Fine Art Museum and the Schwules Museum in Hamburg are also included.

The exhibition

At the heart of the exhibition are the Congolese sapeurs of SAPE - the Society of Entertainers and Elegant People - photographed in the Bacongo neighborhood of Brazzaville. In these portraits, Tamagni highlights the transformative potential of style and the ability of fashion to become an act of vindication, dignity and historical awareness. The sapeurs, with their impeccable, brightly colored outfits, symbolically rewrite the colonial legacy, transforming the gaze of others into an act of pride. Their images have become iconic thanks to the book Gentlemen of Bacongo, published in 2009 by Trolley Books, a volume that has inspired designers such as Paul Smith, Stella Jean, and Solange Knowles, and recently relaunched by VogueItalia for its conceptual link to the MET Gala 2025 - Super Fine: Tailoring Black Style. They are joined by another unexpected and powerful group: the metalheads of Botswana, photographed in 2012. Through Tamagni’s lens, the Afrometal universe is also revealed in its social value: chains, studs, and leather jackets become symbols of aesthetic and cultural autonomy, charting a new map of rock venues. An immersion in a vibrant subculture, born of the encounter between European legacies and the desire for self-assertion in the contemporary African context.

Women who fight

Another centerpiece of the exhibition is the series devoted to Bolivian cholitas, which won a World Press Photo award in 2011. The indigenous women wrestlers, recognizable by their traditional polleras, embody a form of active resistance: through wrestling - practiced in public and in traditional dress - they claim their role in Bolivian society, challenging cultural and gender discrimination. Tamagni restores their energy, dignity and determination, offering a look capable of capturing their struggle as a form of collective pride.

Fashion as an urban language

The exhibition continues with photographs taken in Johannesburg in 2015, in which Tamagni portrays young urban crews born in repressive political contexts. In these images, fashion is a means of emancipation, a code for constructing alternative belongings, a means of elaborating a personal and social identity freed from prejudice. Here, too, photography becomes a tale of everyday resistance, where aesthetics is substance.

The last section is dedicated to Dakar Fashion Week 2012, one of the most interesting emerging realities of the African fashion industry. Tamagni, with his usual sensitive gaze, focuses on what precedes and follows the catwalk: the workshops, the backstage, the moments of waiting and concentration, revealing a world made of details, relationships and authenticity.

The monograph and the legacy

The photographs from the exhibition, along with a rich selection of previously unpublished works, are collected in the monograph Daniele Tamagni. Style Is Life, published by Kehrer Verlag. The volume is enriched with texts by the curators and contributions by leading scholars and writers-Alain Mabanckou, Angelo Ferracuti, Gerardo Mosquera, Emmanuelle Courreges, and Lekgetho Makola-as well as testimonies by Alessia Glaviano, Duro Olowu, Michele Smargiassi and Deborah Willis. A choral work that traces the human and artistic trajectory of Tamagni, whose legacy was able to connect worlds, cultures, languages.

After his death, the Daniele Tamagni Foundation was born, which today promotes training and support activities for young African photographers, through scholarships, workshops and the Daniele Tamagni Grant, in support of new generations engaged in the narrative of contemporaneity.

In Africa, fashion is rebellion: Daniele Tamagni's photographs on display in Trento, Italy

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