French photographer François Beaurain has a photo animation project inspired by Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia in West Africa.
He was recently there and wanted to create a web-based project that involved the locals, he said in an interview with Visual News.
His animated GIFs depict citizens running circles around a pond, swinging from signboards, and doing cartwheels on the beach, adding a charm and liveliness to the surroundings.
Most of the images were captured at the Ducor Hotel, a former five star luxury hotel that has since fallen into disrepair.
Through his project, Beaurain hopes to show a different side of the country, which was ravaged during the First and Second Liberian Civil Wars. It also doesn’t help that Western media coverage focuses mainly on its tumultuous past.
“Most of the fancy projects you see on the internet come from the modern and rich westernized world. Here, most of the people do not have computers and even less internet access [...] On the other side of the screen, people on the web are not used to seeing fancy things coming from the slums of Africa. I hope this creates a contrast that is able to bring attention to this small and fascinating country unfortunately still famous for its civil war and child soldiers.”
Check out Beaurain’s GIFs below and view the entire set here.
[via Visual News, GIFs via François Beaurain]