Marianne Costade

Emerging photographer From Paris • Born in 1998

Marianne started an ongoing project through which she documents herself wearing a variety of traditional and modern African hairstyles. This project began in January 2021 when Marianne decided to visit a photobooth to capture her new hairdo. She posted the photos on Instagram and received numerous messages showing appreciation for the hairstyle. This happened while she was facing self-esteem and mental health challenges. Documenting these hairstyles allowed her to rebuild her self-esteem as she began to step outside of her comfort zone and experimenting with traditional and modern hairstyles from Africa and its diaspora. These included the Yoruba ‘Koroba’ hairstyle which translates to bucket in English; the Malagasy ‘Somala’ hairstyle and map braids inspired by the maps African slaves would trace with cornrows in order to escape plantations.