MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora presents ALTAR: Prayer, Ritual, Offerings. The visual association of altars are often akin to spiritual pedestals; sites where rituals are enacted, places of sacrificial endowment. Altars are often erected to pay homage to an ancestor or to honor God or a saint. This exhibition takes the altar out of its religious context and interrogates photography as a practice containing the same attributes as altars. The images presented in this exhibition examines several religious traditions that have originated in and/or practiced on the African continent and throughout the world. “ALTAR” also centers love and meditation as a spiritual practice. In this exhibition, we regard the final product—the photograph—as the altar. The context, process, and content of the photographs fulfill the attributes, ritual, sacrifice and offerings.

MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora is an independently published anthology featuring photographic works created by 118 African and diasporic women artists, representing 27 nations. Our goal is to promote an international representative voice of women photographers from continental Africa and its diaspora.