Title – Revenants, Medium – artist-manipulated photograph, Archives, print on matt photo paper,, Format – 200 × 150cm each,, Year of production – 2023 -

Revenant

 
This body of work is based on archival photographs printed on matte paper and reworked by hand. The images come from old celluloid photographs taken by Western photographers during the colonial era, showing indigenous people, often framed through an outside and controlling gaze. These images are not seen as fixed historical records. Instead, I see them as surfaces I can interrupt and transform. Through hand-coloring and physical engagement, I move away from digital processes and work in a more tactile and material way. This becomes a way of rewriting and reclaiming the images.
the process focuses on touch, repair, and reworking. By covering and altering the photographs, not by destroying them, but rebuilding their meaning and taking back control of how these histories are seen.
Blacking out the faces creates intentional void (መንገድ), and a strong sense of presence through absence. It speaks to erasure, but also protection and sacredness (ቅድስና), opening a space for memory, reflection, and resistance.