Angèle Etoundi Essamba was born in Douala and grew-up in Yaoundé. As a young girl, she went to Paris where she received her education. Later on she moved to the Netherlands where she trained at the Nederlandse Fotovakschool ( Netherlands professional school of photography). Etoundi Essamba gained international recognition with exhibitions all over the world. Her photographs were first displayed in 1985 at the Maison Descartes in Amsterdam. Exhibitions followed throughout the world ( Africa, Europe, Asia, South America and the United States ), and her work has appeared in a number of publications : Passion 1989, Contrasts 1995, Symboles 1999, Noirs 2001; La Métamorphose du sublime, 2003,  Dialogue 2006, Voiles & Dévoilements, 2008, I-dentity- Eye-dentity, 2010 and is also part of several public and private collections.
 Etoundi Essamba has a long and recognized trajectory in realization of photographical register of black women. In her work, she breaks from stereotypical representations of an Africa torn by famines, epidemics and wars, instead celebrating the cultural richness and diversity of the continent. Her varied background means her outlook is equally aesthetic, idealistic, realistic, intimate and societal. Therefore, she joins the spirit of humanistic photography, a strong attachment to the values of communion, solidarity and equality between men.
Angèle’s work has a deep influence of her own multicultural trajectory ( born in Cameroon, raised in Paris and a Dutch Citizen). She is focused in the creation of black women portraits that question the concepts of identity, alterity and cultural duality, in order to promote mutual respect, understanding and tolerance. Her work shows pride, strength and consciousness of African women and the relation between tradition and modernity. So she presents a vision of Women, Africa and its culture.
"Essamba’s uses the human body as an aesthetic plain to represent the mental reality of  exile and life between two cultures (...)" *

* Joelle Buscat, Alters et ego in Femmes dans les Arts d’Afrique,  Dapper Museum, Paris.