Photographs by Imraan Christian
Words by Katie de Klee
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.
Imraan Christian is as much a healer as he is a photographer.
Using his camera as a tool for reclamation, the Cape Town-based photographer is on a mission to create a new mythology for young members of South Africa’s Indigenous communities, who have been systematically deprived of their own histories by colonial forces. “Where we find historical loss, the only thing we can do is draw from our culture to reimagine and recreate,” Christian said.
In his series “Ruh,” which translates from Arabic to “soul,” Christian draws on shards of often-forgotten culture to create something entirely new: a fantastical world of Indigenous gods, queens, and heroes, participating in tales that fill the gaps in a history ravaged by persecution. The work explores ocean mythologies and the archetype of ocean-dwelling deities and kings through an African lens. By forging a new mythology, “Ruh” doesn’t just reflect Indigenous identity—it reclaims it, reignites it, and reimagines what’s possible.
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Through Photography, New Mythologies Restore What Colonialism Erased
Through Photography, New Mythologies Restore What Colonialism Erased
