As someone who has been going back and forth to Ghana for more than ten years now, I’m all too familiar with the the impressions most people have about “Africa” if they have never been anywhere on the continent. We seem too often to have very simple and homogenous ideas about the lived experiences of more than 1 billion people speaking roughly 2000 languages, living on a landmass greater than the area of China, the US, India, and Europe combined.

(C)Marta Taylor

For every picture taken to highlight female genital mutilation, refugees, or famine, there are a thousand pictures of mundane daily life that never get seen. Pictures of market traders with their wares spread on cloths on the roadside. Pictures of business men in western suits talking rapidly on the latest cell phones. Pictures of children playing soccer, of women washing clothes, of boiling cooking pots. Pictures of cities with tall buildings, traffic jams, and internet cafes.

(C)Marta Taylor

So I find myself deeply in love with freelance photographer Peter DiCampo’s newest project: Everyday Africa. Photos of daily life throughout this vast continent, taken in iPhones by DiCampo and others. Interested readers may also enjoy the work of photographer and friend Marta Taylor, whose photos are shown here (with permission).

(C)Marta Taylor

(C)Marta Taylor