David Pace
The Architecture of L’Ancien Village
A Memorial Exhibition
Jan 5 - 28, 2023
by Diane Jonte-Pace on behalf of David Pace.
The Architecture of L’Ancien Village represents one series of photographs within David Pace’s larger project on life and land in the rural village of Bereba in Burkina Faso. The project as a whole documented contemporary village life in West Africa, capturing its “uniqueness and beauty as well as its hardships, creating portraits of community members in their daily activities” (Pace, Sur La Route, p. 58). David hoped to challenge the negativity about African life and culture dominant in the western imagination.
Included in David’s West Africa project are several distinct series: In the Market Day series, colorful cloth sold in weekly markets provided vibrant backdrops for portraits in the tradition of Malian photographer Seydou Keita. In Friday Night, David joined the community dancing under the stars to West African pop music, capturing photos of dancers in the darkness with his flash. In Sur La Route (On the Road), he documented community members returning to the village at dusk after a day of work in their fields. In the series Les Sites d’Or (Gold Mines), David photographed artisanal gold miners at work. In the Karaba Brick Quarry series, featured in Venice during the 2019 Biennale, David photographed the carving of bricks out of stone in a vast quarry, focusing not only on the workers but also on the architectural quality of the landscape.
The Architecture of L’Ancien Village brings together David’s interest in daily life in the village and his fascination with the landscape and architecture of the region. L’Ancien Village is the oldest part of the village of Bereba: many of the structures in the photographs were built more than a century ago, yet the walls and courtyards testify to the vitality of community life and the stark beauty of the landscape.
In 2019, shortly before his death, David described his vision for the architectural project: “I am committed to communicating the beauty of these spaces, so clearly marked with the traces of human life and labor, and to portraying the realities of life in West Africa” (Personal Structures: Identities, p. 394).
This exhibition of David’s work honors his memory. David often quoted his friend, the Burkinabe photographer Warren Saré, who said “To be a photographer is to be a witness to one’s time.” With this exhibition, we remember David, with gratitude for the way his photographs continue to bear witness to our time, and to the time he shared with us.
Pace, David, Sur la Route, Blue Sky Book 13, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR, 2014.
Pace, David, Personal Structures: Identities, European Cultural Center, Venice, Italy, 2019.
David Pace (American, 1951 - 2020, he/him/his) was a San Francisco Bay Area photographer, filmmaker, and professor. He earned an MFA from San Jose State University and taught photography for 25 years at Santa Clara University and other Bay Area universities.
David’s photographic work included projects on memory and collecting (Re:Collections), cultural archives (Wirephoto), time and movement (Velocity), and vernacular architecture (The Archaeology of the American Roadside). He also completed a multi-year project focused on life in a rural village in Burkina Faso in West Africa. David’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is held in several museum and gallery collections, including the San Jose Museum of Art, the de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, the Portland Museum, and the Schilt Gallery in Amsterdam. A Tribute to David Pace will be held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, during the 2023 Photosa Festival.
David died of leukemia in 2020. Proceeds from sales of David’s work are direct contributions to the Friends of African Village Libraries.