Art as a healer

This series of photographs were taken by Ivory Coast-based photographer Joana Choumali in the weeks after a 2016 terrorist attack on her home town. The sadness of the event and the time are all too apparent and Joana decided to incorporate embroidery as a way of getting over her own sadness.

As she explains:

“Three weeks after the attacks, the atmosphere of the little town changed. The sadness is everywhere. A ‘saudade,’ some kind of melancholy. Most of the pictures show people by themselves, walking in the streets or just standing, sitting alone, lost in their thoughts. And empty places.”