OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT
Photographer and photojournalist
A French photographer and photojournalist, Olympia de Maismont has been working on the African continent for more than thirteen years. After a decade in Burkina Faso (2013–2023), she moved to Nigeria in 2024, where she became chief photographer for Agence France-Presse (AFP), also covering Benin, Togo and Ghana.
Self-taught, she began her career in 2013 in Burkina Faso at the Journal du Jeudi, a satirical weekly for which she wrote columns under the pen name Poug Neeré (“beautiful woman” in Mooré). She gradually turned to photography and video and became a freelance journalist, working with international media and major international organisations. Over that decade, she documented everyday life as well as the political, security and humanitarian crises that shook the country — including the failed coup of September 2015, the coups of January and September 2022, the 2015 and 2020 presidential elections, and the jihadist insurgency and the humanitarian crisis that followed.
In Nigeria, she continues to cover the news while developing long-term documentary projects. She is particularly interested in Lagos nightlife and in the world of the “1%”, the Nigerian elite whose parties, codes and lifestyles she documents. Through this work, she explores a rarely represented side of Nigeria — and of the African continent more broadly — bearing witness to the diversity and contrasts of its societies.
Her guiding principle: to show Africa as she knows it, in all its complexity and diversity. Without overlooking crises and hardship, she seeks to convey the richness of a plural continent, shaped by societies in motion and in constant transformation. With a resolutely human approach, she portrays diverse and contrasting societies, rich in their contradictions.
Alongside her press work, she develops a personal photographic practice at the crossroads of documentary and portraiture. Her series explore craftsmanship, cultural practices and the relationship between tradition and modernity. Several of her projects have been exhibited in France and abroad.
Contact
olympia.de.maismont@gmail.com
Social media
Credits
Graphic design
