Léonce Raphaël Agbodjelou is one of the pre-eminent photographers emerging from the Republic of Benin.

Born in Porto-Novo in 1965, his creative journey was greatly influenced by his late father, the world-renowned photographer Joseph Moise Agbodjelou (1912-2000). Today, a critically acclaimed artist in his own right, Léonce still favors the use of medium format films and natural daylight, to create unearthly images that capture Benin’s ever evolving cultural zeitgeist. In essence, Agbodjelou's œuvre, interprets the experiences of a nation caught between tradition and progress.

Léonce grew up deeply immersed in the spiritual liturgy. He holds countless childhood memories of holidays spent observing his mother’s extended family of Gèlèdé master-artisans, being surrounded by cohorts of ethereal works of art and tenets of worship for playmates, which gradually began to cross-pollinate his visual narrative and form to this day, an intrinsic part of his holistic practice.

Agbodjelou initially garnered critical acclaim with the now famed photographic series "Egungun", "The Muscle Men" and "Les Demoiselles de Porto-Novo".  In his latest body of work, the modern master pays a vibrant homage to the cult of Zangbeto, one of Benin's most pivotal animist entities.

In Ogu culture, the Zangbetos, who form a secret society which is strictly attended by fellow Zangbetos, spiritual worshipers or devotees, are deemed to hold spiritistic and magical abilities, allowing them to dodge weapons, swallow splinters of glass or metal without coming to harm and even scare away evil witches.

The Cult of Zangbeto is said to evoke the cosmic energy and primordial powers that inhabited the earth long before the appearance of man, ultimately providing a source of wisdom and continuity not just for Ogu people but perhaps humanity at large.  

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