In the work Faces, Nadia Kaabi-Linke restores dignity and personal identity to the South Africans who, according to the Englishman Frank Fillis, were hunted and collected to be displayed as living objects in the Kaffir Kraal at the Greater Britain Exhibition in Earl’s Court in 1899. A historical photograph from this time shows a group of people in front of a staged African landscape, dressed in costumes meant to depict them as “savages” on the fringes of civilization. These individuals were assigned a collective identity, reduced to mere objects of exhibition.
In contrast, Kaabi-Linke’s portrait series deconstructs these stereotypes and the colonial division into “us” and “them”. Each subject is portrayed as an individual, with a unique expression and identity that transcends the historical dehumanization. In the series, every person is given their own portrait, mounted in an oval passe-partout—a format that recalls the early 1900s practice of framing individual portraits in photography studios. Through this gesture, Kaabi-Linke provides a reclamation of personal identity, offering a dignified representation of each individual beyond the lens of colonialism and exploitation.