Madagascar’s Gen Z navigates tradition and freedom
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Charlotte Yonga, a French-Cameroonian photographer, explored the lives of young people in Madagascar, capturing their experiences as they balance traditional expectations with desires for personal freedom.
In 2024, while completing an artist residency at the Fondation H in Antananarivo, Madagascar, Yonga began a project focused on family, friendship, and romance among Malagasy youth. Yonga’s portraits depict subjects in everyday settings, homes, kitchens, forests, and reveal a tension between cultural pride and a yearning for change.
She collaborated with her subjects, designing scenes inspired by both traditional family photography and popular African television series. The resulting photographs, currently displayed at the Rencontres d'Arles after showings in cities including Paris and Beijing, aim to represent the “unresolved choices” faced by a generation caught between heritage and modern influences. Yonga intends her work to show the delicate balance between belonging and rejecting established norms within Malagasy society.
