Odjidja, Arteh

Arteh Odjidja is a London-based photographer and educator who utilizes portraiture as a form of social documentary. With a concern for narrative power—particularly as it relates to migration stories—Odjidja’s intimate, character-driven portraits are often accompanied with interviews, allowing the people he photographs to be perceived the way they want to be perceived. “The camera [is] often incidental,” he told Amateur Photographer in 2022. “It’s about being a human being in that moment and saying, ‘I need to connect with your humanity.’”

The images in the Museum of Contemporary Photography collection are from his series Stranger in Moscow (2012). While visiting Russia to photograph a fashion show, Odjidja met Abdulay Vilhette de Sousa: a young African migrant who settled in Moscow by way of the West African island São Tomé and Príncipe. He was interested in his experience as an obvious foreigner—"a stranger”—in a city that is not typically culturally diverse. His interaction with Abdulay was the genesis of what is now an ongoing project called The Stranger Series, which celebrates the stories of young migrants through black-and-white photographs made in locations determined by the person photographed to show aspects of their identity. The series culminated in a book, Fears and Dreams: The Stranger Series, in 2022.

Arteh Odjidja studied graphic design at University of the Arts London and worked in branding and advertising before turning his full attention to photography. Drawing upon his interest in fashion and menswear, he found success as a fashion photographer and has made images for brands such as Christian Dior, Paul Smith, and Montblanc. His work has been featured in exhibition at Tate Modern, London; The British Museum, London; and others. This work was featured in the 2015 MoCP exhibition, Dandy Lion: (Re)Articulating Black Masculine Identity, curated by Shantrelle P. Lewis.