Photographs by Malaika Nabila and Delali Ayivi
This story was published as part of a partnership between Atmos and PhotoVogue in the lead-up to the 2025 edition of the PhotoVogue Festival, The Tree of Life: A Love Letter to Nature. The festival will take place in Milan from March 6–9, 2025.
Roots of Imagination is an exploration of the profound relationship between hair and identity.
Created by Malaika Nabila and photographer Delali Ayivi, cofounders of their project TogoYeye (New Togo in ewe), the aim of the project was to explore traditional hairdressing techniques from the 20th century that risk being forgotten since the introduction of mesh braiding hair and chemical straighteners around the turn of the century. In an effort to avoid this loss of knowledge, the series—which was commissioned by the Palais de Lomé—presents how generations of Togolese youth before them have expressed themselves through hair.
The result is a photographic series exploring histories, not only of hair but of intimacy, individualism, and generational dreams. By drawing parallels between the creativity and optimism of modern-day Togolese youth and the generations before them, Nabila and Ayivi document traditional hairdressing techniques, while considering historic and contemporary notions of expressed selfhood, culturally encoded through hair.
This project was realized in collaboration with acclaimed Togolese hairdresser Bataka Bamana also known as Patron Aimé. The duo drew inspiration from the past through Patron Aimé’s verbal recollections of his youth and photo albums. An additional historical influence are the backdrops and attitudes of the subjects from classic West African studio portraits. But instead of shooting inside a studio, Nabila and Ayivi took to the streets of Lomé, located on the Gulf of Guinea, using the city’s vibrant colours, painted walls, and sprawling beach as their backdrop.
Through collaboration with five NewGen designers from Lomé (Cherifa Namoro, Anifat Abdul Salam, Djiedjom Hundeglah, Nina K. A. Sewonu and We Are Together for you), Roots of Imagination spotlighting those who set trends in Togolese fashion today, reinforcing Nabila and Ayivi’s utopic vision of the Togolese youth and their style, innovation, and optimism.
Beyond hair, Roots of Imagination is at its core an ode to Togo’s youth. It speaks to the power of collective imagination and the progress that comes with valuing individualism. Nabila and Ayivi have come to understand hair and fashion as a symbol and vessel of self-expression, and hope that the optimism in these images shines light on Togo’s underrepresented future generations—and the dreams and hopes they hold.
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In Photos: Endangered Hairstyling Techniques of the Togolese
In Photos: Endangered Hairstyling Techniques of the Togolese
