Nothing's in Vain

Winner of the 2017 MACK First Book Award

In 2011, Malagasy photographer Emmanuelle Andrianjafy arrived in the port city of Dakar, situated on the westernmost African coast, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Nothing’s in Vain is Adrianjafy’s response to the experience of uprooting to the Senegalese capital, a city as vibrant as it is disorientating. Embracing the chaos of an unfamiliar world, she takes us on an exploratory journey through a metropolis in constant flux between construction and deconstruction. The sequence of images careens between street scenes, portraits, landscapes, and close-up details, recreating her fluctuating experience of the multiple faces of the city.