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Cover Photographer: Adeloyá Magnoni

August 20, 2019

Clockwise from top left: Yawôs, women Candomblé initiates greeting the ground; Orixá Nanã, mistress of life and death, who molded the human body out of clay; Bebê Yawô de Oxum, infant initiate for Orixá Oxum; Logun Edê rests his head in the lap of his mother, Oxum. Photos © Adeloyá Magnoni.
Orixá Oxalá, father of all Candomblé orixás (deities), lord of peace. © Adeloyá Magnoni.

Adeloyá Magnoni is a photographer-activist who uses an anthropological lens to give voice and visibility to diverse sexualities, genders, Afro-religious traditions, social identities, and ethnicities. She is a practitioner of Candomblé—a daughter of Exu and Yansã—bisexual, antiracist, and an intersectional feminist. She believes in photography as a portal that is accessible to all, independent of language, and she uses it as a means of mobilizing empathy through art.

Her public exhibitions have centered on two important themes: honoring the lives of trans and travesti people, and documenting Candomblé rituals. Her images have been exhibited in Brazil, Uruguay, and, most recently, Italy.

Magnoni became a Candomblé initiate in 2017 and intensified her photographic work in the sacred space of the terreiro (candomblé religious house). The result is Travessia Okàn: Um Mergulho no Candomblé da Bahia (Okàn Crossing: Diving into the Candomblé of Bahia, August 2019), a book that explores Magnoni’s relationship with the religion through her art. In photographing and writing about the Orixás—Candomblé deities—Magnoni seeks to fulfill a mission: to transform outsiders’ attitudes toward Candomblé beyond the racist and exotifying gaze.


Follow on Instagram: @adeloyamagnoni
Buy the book: www.oyaeditora.com.br

Tagged With: Adeloyá Magnoni, Afro-Brazilians, Candomblé, salvador da bahia

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