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Ditte Haarløv Johnsen . Maputo Diary

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Disko Bay

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Disko Bay is proud to present Maputo Diary, a deeply personal and visually arresting monograph by award-winning Danish photographer and filmmaker Ditte Haarløv Johnsen. The book brings together over two decades of photographic work from Mozambique’s capital, Maputo — the city where Haarløv Johnsen grew up herself, in the aftermath of the War of Independence and the early stages of a long civil war. Through 121 photographs, accompanied by diary notes and new texts, Maputo Diary portrays life, love, and survival among people living on the margins of society, blending social documentary with artistic investigation.

After more than twenty years photographing life in Mozambique—its people, the city, the civil war, friends, struggles, addiction, love, togetherness, a sense of belonging, and, generally, everyday life in the Mozambican capital—Haarløv Johnsen created a photographic archive depicting the country’s history, the relationships between people, how they loved, how they suffered, how they stood together, and how they continued to fight for a better future. At its heart lies Haarløv Johnsen’s friendship with the “Manas” (“Sisters”)—a group of transgender individuals, many of whom are no longer alive.

Maputo Diary stands as both a personal testimony and a universal story — one that finds beauty, dignity, and humanity even in life’s most vulnerable moments. With its rich color palette and calm, contemplative tone, the book brings a world that may seem far away intimately close.

“Maybe that’s what Maputo Diary is too. An insistence on bearing witness to the lives of others when nobody else was there to make sure they didn’t just disappear.” — Ditte Haarløv Johnsen, Maputo Diary

Ditte Haarløv Johnsen (b. 1977) is a Danish documentary photographer and filmmaker who grew up in Mozambique, where her parents settled after the country gained independence from Portugal. As a teenager, she moved to Denmark with her father but continued to photograph during her travels back to Mozambique, where her mother and youngest sister remained. She has studied at the National Film School of Denmark, Ryerson University in Canada and Fatamorgana – The Danish School of Art Photography. Her award-winning documentary films have been shown at numerous international festivals and the series Maputo Diary has been exhibited in various stages at Brandts, Odense (2006), Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (2010), Galleri Image, Aarhus (2011), Fotografisk Center, Copenhagen (2013), LaChambre, Strasbourg (2018), The Royal Danish Library, Copenhagen (2021) and Le Centre Culturel Franco-Mozambicain, Mozambique (2024).

Ditte Haarløv Johnsen . Maputo Diary


Clothbound debossed hardcover
232 pages
Edit & sequence by Stinus Duch and Ditte Haarløv Johnsen
Introduction and diary notes by Ditte Haarløv Johnsen
Text by Eliana N’Zualo
Language: English and Portuguese
Edition of 1100
Printed by Narayana Press
ISBN 978-87-975274-5-0
Published 27 November 2025

3 Items
2025-10-17

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