Nelly Aguessy aka Bigmotha // Photographer, filmmaker and storyteller

Bigmotha is my alter ego, a Berlin based self-educated photographer from France. I am that indomitable and creative spirit who traveled throughout Africa, USA, Asia and Europe to meet images that tell their own stories. After a Bachelor of Art in Politic Science, I pursued my studies with a Master degree in Management.

But that was not enough, I had the strong will to learn the history of Art and became more and more interested in its variety. I studied at the “Ostkreuz Schule für Fotografie”, a school and a politically critical agency, there I learned the most of what I know in the field.

My appeal for art led me to diverse artistic projects including the Paris Photo fair trade and a Pop up event at the MoMA in New-York. I aim to capture the appeal of my subjects in photographs that naturally find their way into viewers’ hearts.

Activist storytelling is my approach and I like to work with innovative magazines that promote diversity in culture, race and sexuality.

In my last project “We can’t breathe” I focus on the stories of Afro diaspora here in Germany. From these pictures, an artistic cooperation with the exhibition “Grenzenlos, Kolonialismus, Industrie und Widerstand” in the Museum of Work in Hamburg arose.

The intersectional views and voices from BIPOC in this exhibition result in a “Bookazine”, a mixture of book and magazine, which uses essayistic and scientific tests, poems and photographs to address the topics of (neo-) colonialism, racism and the different life experiences of BIPOC.