Tine Poppe

[b. Oslo, Norway]

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//I am an artist photographer and graphic designer living and working in Oslo, Norway. My practice focuses on bringing attention to social, political, existential and environmental issues through art and documentary photography//

“My interest in female genital mutilation awoke after working  on an assignment about agriculture and climate change for an NGO, The Development Fund [Utviklingsfondet] in Malawi, Africa. I was impressed by the women of Malawi, how they carry the fate and future of their families on their shoulders in one of the poorest countries hit by climate change in the world. In addition to the assignment from the NGO, I wanted to create my own project about the women, on my I return to Norway, I researched famous Malawi poets and discovered that a lot of the poetry were protests against female genital mutilation, which appeared to be a large part of a girl’s initiation into womanhood and an intrinsic part of some of the communities’ cultural heritage in Malawi.  It broke my heart to realise that probably a lot of the women and young girls I had met in the villages had undergone this mutilation.”