Pettersson, Per-Anders - African Catwalk

"Award winning Swedish photographer Per-Anders Pettersson shows a new and unexpected side of the African continent as he examines the fast growing fashion industry in Africa. This book is the first time the emerging African fashion industry has been documented in exclusive behind the scenes photographs. The series was taken in 15 countries around Africa from 2010 – 2015 and celebrates a new, vibrant, colorful, and unexpected view of the African continent. Pettersson’s images are not only set to challenge stereotypes in African fashion which include animal prints and ethnic designs, but are also meant to confront the »Western gaze,« a media misperception in which Africa is but a war-torn continent rampant with poverty, diseases and ethnic conflicts." (publisher's note)

About the photographer (*1967):
Per-Anders Pettersson is a Swedish photographer based in
Cape Town, South Africa. He has covered a wide range of international news events: hunger in Ethiopia, civil wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the HIV / AIDS epidemic in Botswana and South Africa. His pictures won praise and awards: World Press Photo, PDN, POY, NPPA, CARE, CHIPP, Unicef Photo of the Year, American Photography, Commarts. He has exhibited internationally and 2013 published Rainbow Transit, a book about South Africa in democracy.