The Anonymous Project: Being There 44, 2023

Contemporary artist Omar Victor Diop (born in Senegal) is collaborating on this project with filmmaker Lee Shulman. Shulman has been working for some time on a project he has called “The Anonymous Project,” which aims to collect and preserve mid-century color photographs from around the world. The project was launched in 2017 and showcases Kodachrome memories and amateur photographs taken from the 1950s through the 1980s. Shulman has previously collaborated with, among others, the British photographer Martin Parr.

Omar Diop lives in Dakar, and his work includes art and fashion photography as well as commercial photography. He enjoys blending photography with other art forms, such as costume design, styling, and creative writing.

From the very beginning of his artistic career, Omar Victor Diop has developed an interest in photography and design, primarily as a means of capturing the diversity of modern African societies and lifestyles. His photographs often focus on a reimagining of history, the representation of diasporic experiences, and global politics of Black resistance. He enjoys blending photography with other art forms, such as costume design, styling, and creative writing.

By having Omar Victor Diop “sneak into” photographs taken by anonymous white middle-class Americans in the 1950s and 1960s—and thereby take part in worlds to which he was not invited—Lee Shulman puts a twist on “The Anonymous Project” that is both humorous and political.