Omar Diop, ‘Juan de Pareja’ Photograph, 2014

Note: Omar Victor Diop’s photographic career began in 2012 and he gained international recognition with his Project Diaspora, a series of inspired, staged metaphorical portraits of himself as various historical figures. He wittily plays homage to the portraits significant figures by famous artists of the 15th -19th centuries (here, specifically Velàsquez’s eponymous portrait and in so doing, reflects on current obsessions with celebrity and with football in particular.

For Diop, the European perception of African footballers is a mx of glory and hero-worship giving a somewhat fragile illusion of integration – exclusion is often the reality and this is the paradox he explores in so much of his work.