Between Memory and Modernization
Once vibrant and culturally rich, the neighborhoods of Doro Manekia and Serategna Sefer thrived in the mid-20th century as centers of life, labor, and communal identity. Today, these historic quarters face sweeping redevelopment residents are being uprooted from homes shaped by generations and resettled in anonymous condominium blocks on the city’s edge.
This body of work captures that moment of quiet tension: between what was and what is becoming. In each frame, the subtle gestures of daily life—lingering in courtyards, watching from doorways speak to stories of resilience, displacement, and fading memory. As Addis Ababa expands, this series offers a visual testimony to the human cost of modernization and the fragile threads that hold a community together in the face of erasure.
