Rijasolo
Rijasolo was born in France and returned to Madagascar, the country of his roots, in 2004. It had been nearly two decades since his time in Madagascar and his return was driven by a desire to create a new portfolio of work titled Miverina which confronted the challenges of reestablishing an intimate relationship with a place of origin after such a long period of absence. Throughout the development of this new body of work he also worked with the local council in his area to set up a series of photography workshops for emerging young artists from the town of Antsiranana.
Rijasolo has been internationally recognized for this work, first as a selected artist in 2005 for the Rencontres de la Photographie Africaine in Bamak and then again in 2019 as the winner of the Paritana Contemporary Art Award. His work is inspired by the humanist documentary photography style, in line with the pure tradition of American photojournalism where the photographer is fully immersed in his subject.
Rijasolo now lives and works in Antananarivo, Madagascar. He has a refined and respected artistic style as a reporter-photographer. He worked for the Wostok Press agency to cover the 2007 presidential campaign in France, and in November of that same year, went on to cofound Riva Press (www.riva-press.com) alongside four other photojournalist colleagues with a goal of bringing an independent, apolitical view to their work. He continues to collaborate with French newspapers and magazines such as Libération, Le Monde, Paris Match and Jeune Afrique