Tecno has partnered with visual artist Angelica Dass on a two-year photography project called 100 Portraits of Becoming, which documents 100 people across Kenya, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Brazil.
The project begins in Kenya with 20 portraits and personal stories. Tecno says the series looks at how people define themselves through work, family, ambition, identity and change, rather than treating each participant as a stand-in for a wider culture or generation.
Dass says the project grew out of a question that has shaped her work for years: who gets to define a person? In the accompanying video, she says that conversations with participants guide each portrait, giving people more control over how they are represented.
Tecno also uses the project to showcase Universal Tone
The project also serves as a showcase for Tecno’s Universal Tone Imaging technology, which is designed to more accurately reproduce a wider range of skin tones. Tecno says the technology is meant to reduce the risk of people being made to follow a single visual standard.
Dass says the camera system helped her capture the participants without smoothing or correcting the details. Tecno pointed out that accurate representation is becoming increasingly important as AI takes on a greater role in facial recognition and image generation. For the photos from Kenya, Dass used the Tecno Camon 50 Ultra 5G smartphone.
The project will move to four more countries
The Philippines will be the next stop, with 20 participants, including working solo mothers and people related to solo parenting. Saudi Arabia is expected to follow later this year, while Turkey and Brazil are scheduled to follow. At the end of the two-year project, Tecno and Dass expect 100 portraits and 100 stories collected across the five countries.