Impression au jet d’encre sur papier d’archivage Hahnemühle, photographie argentique, gravure sur bois et yakisugi, 2023
The Self-Portrait Project is an ongoing photographic series in which Mallory Lowe Mpoka explores diasporic identity, cultural inheritance, and collective memory. Drawing on family archives and West/Central African studio portraiture, Mpoka stages self-portraits that merge her own presence with that of her late grandmother, Deborah. Using inherited objects, clothing, and symbolic gestures, she enacts a ritual of reimagining—transforming lost or fragmented histories into intimate visual archives. The work blurs temporal and familial boundaries, reflecting survival, memory, and the transformative power of photography.
Mallory Lowe Mpoka is a Belgian-Cameroonian artist who explores the connections among identity, memory, and place. In her multidisciplinary practice, which includes photography, weaving, sculpture, dyeing, and installation, she reactivates family archives and memorabilia within a nomadic state of “in-betweenness.”
Mpoka’s work has been presented at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin. She published her artist’s book Architecture of the Self: What Lives Within Us in 2024. Nominated for the Malick Sidibé Prize in 2022 and the New Generation Photography Award in 2025, she presented a solo exhibition at Fonderie Darling as part of the 2025 MOMENTA Biennale. Her forthcoming major body of work will be presented in summer 2026 at Les Rencontres d’Arles.