A KENE eye: A refugee in Rome equips others in Mali and Italy with photographic skills and tools

Bamako © Seydou Keita

Informed by his own experiences with migration and photography, Mohamed Keita set up spaces for self-determination

Born in Ivory Coast in 1993 and a refugee in Italy at 17 years old, Mohamed Keita picked up photography by chance when he was offered the opportunity to learn the basics at a migrant reception centre in Rome’s San Lorenzo neighbourhood. “Every Wednesday, two photographers from Salerno, southern Italy, gave us photography classes as volunteers,” he explains. “I was a little curious to learn something and keep myself occupied with that. I did have an instinctual drive to storytelling, and the photographic medium at that time was an instrument for self-expression.”

Keita was able to build on this training at Exusphoto, a school for photography near the reception centre, after its director noticed his work. Barely speaking Italian, he learnt about approaches to storytelling through understanding the technicalities of the medium. “To shoot a correct image is to communicate what you want to,” he states. “Before any level of photographic theory comes the intent of an image, its purpose in communicating something.”

Keita’s images from the period include shots of everyday life in the street, featuring both fellow refugees and those who simply walked past. “I don’t care where people come from, I like to do things where and with whom it makes sense, spontaneously,” he says. “I don’t want to focus my stories on refugees, or foreigners of any sorts, and this is clear from my personal work shot in Rome, where I portray human beings sharing the space I was in.”

© Alassane Konate
@Amadou Togo

“Every person has a duty to leave a trace of themselves, both through ideals and tangible outcomes”

Observing the world has been Keita’s starting point and he applied the same logic to Studio KENE, which he set up in 2017 in Kanadjiguila, a neighbourhood in the province of Bamako, Mali. Kanadjiguila is a vast cluster of concrete and brick buildings which rapidly grew over the last decade as migrant communities arrived from the Ivory Coast, Guinea and other sub-Saharan regions. Travelling to Mali to visit his brother, Keita was struck by the boredom annihilating the youngsters there, and recognised his past self in them.

Supported by Rome-based organisation Fondazione Pianoterra, he decided to pay back what he had learnt to locals aged 12 to 22 years old. Keita wanted to give these students the chance to be passionate about photography, and set up a workshop. Initially it was not easy to get them interested and later, when Studio KENE opened, it was difficult to get the community on board with having the youngsters – and educators – in the street with their cameras.

KENE had to get closer to those living nearby, to connect so that they could express both their own stories and others’ point of view, a process which took nearly a year. KENE is now a permanent space for photography, education, communal living, and care, centred on teamwork and non-hierarchical teaching.

It is a collaborative approach literally constructed from the ground up, when Keita and others physically built the studio. “The group formed organically and gradually,” he explains. “In the morning, I used to fetch water and transport bricks with a group of older youngsters, to help out with the construction works. In the afternoon I then gathered those curious to know more about photography and the camera, and taught them in a different space. From two assistants to five students, the group grew in a few days. Another five students joined as the community started to notice what we were doing and be genuinely intrigued.”

Courtesy of Studio KENE
Courtesy of Studio KENE

Keita’s first thought was to use street photography so these individuals could better understand their neighbourhood, but he has found that studio photography helps them too. Encouraging the students to build a firm technical knowledge, it also allows them to portray themselves and others, building trust and self-determination. In addition KENE aims to equip its students for work, often offering its alumni teaching work, and training them in both photography and film so that they can become photographers in their diverse communities, shooting weddings and other special events.

KENE also offers courses in theory, and group reviews, as well as a processing lab; in short, its students are given the instruments to narrate their reality, and understand themselves in relation to it. Making images and stories nurtures critical thinking, and fosters interplay between individual expression and collective action. And together, the students’ work creates a combined portrait of Kanadjiguila, an area often overlooked even by other Bamako inhabitants. In documenting it, Studio KENE is helping form some kind of collective memory, and a better sense of cultural identity. “Every person has a duty to leave a trace of themselves,” says Keita, “both through ideals and tangible outcomes.”

In 2022, Studio KENE opened another outpost in Rome’s multicultural Esquilino district. This time pitched at adults, its main objective is to create a place for learning around photography via teamwork, reciprocal listening and support. Theoretical classes and practice sessions alternate, and students are encouraged to depict and engage with the surrounding area. The Rome location also allows other collaborators to get involved, some of whom are professional teachers in wider disciplines such as publishing, studio and street photography, and editing tools.

Roma @Adama Kone
@ Moussa Keita

Keita now divides his time between Bamako and Rome, and continues his own photographic practice while promoting learning about photography as a root to self-determination, confidence, cultural understanding and basic visual literacy. KENE students are winning recognition for their work, their images circulating through exhibitions in Rome, Naples, and Prato, Tuscany, where Centro Pecci hosted an exhibition narrating the first years of the Bamako space, right before the new iteration in Rome opened.

For Keita, photography can generate transformative practices of mutual care, and help redistribute knowledge and opportunities for change – whether in Mali or Italy. “When we are living in difficult conditions, we are brought to think that our thoughts don’t matter to others and we feel stuck in isolation, incapable of communicating,” he says. “Photography taught me that we can always be useful and our voice does matter, always.”

Ilaria Sponda

Ilaria Sponda is a freelance writer, curator and editor at Der Greif. Prior to this, she studied a BA in arts, media and cultural events at IULM University, Milan, and an MA in culture studies at Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Her words have featured in C41 Magazine, Lampoon, Over Journal and Trigger. Her focus of interest lies in photographic art, media ecologies, globalisation and image circulations. @ilariasponda