Kankou Sambakessi was born in 1998 and grew up in Paris.

After obtaining her literature baccalaureate, she was admitted to a literary preparatory class and then joined a course at the Sorbonne where she obtained her degree. During her preparatory year, Kankou started to explore analog photography, at first as a hobby. Very quickly, photography became a way for her to escape from the suffocating rhythm of preparatory school. This is how she decided to study photography at the ENS Louis Lumière and graduated in 2022.

Her favorite subject is portrait, always in film. She likes to work in the uncomfortable moment that a photo taken on the fly can provide « I don’t know why I like to do portraits, I am shy by nature and I find it hard to go up to people ». Kankou uses this fragility as a strength to « make sure we’re all on equal footing in the discomfort we feel with each other; that’s when something happens for me ».

In her practice, the artist needs time, to see, to observe, to feel, to take pictures, to let time take away her images and rediscover them weeks or months later. Sometimes words are added to the photos, they come to her instinctively as hidden clues, giving the viewer guidance rather than a specific direction to take. For the artist it is « another way of playing with abstraction ».

Her approach to photography metamorphoses as her personal journey unfolds. Inspired by great portraitists such as Francis Bacon, Kankou wishes to address through her portraits different subjects such as identity and mental health. As a result, she is now exploring the blur and the meaning it conveys. « I find the blur interesting; ultimately, when the face is lost, you can see in it what you want and, better yet, who you want, including yourself ».