This gallery documents diverse expressions of Vodun practice in Benin.

Vodun is a religious system practiced in parts of West Africa, based on a belief in a supreme creator and a pantheon of spirits that act as intermediaries between the human and spiritual worlds.

Through drumming, dance, sacrifice, ritual embodiment, and collective participation, ceremonies create moments of interaction with spiritual forces and ancestral presences. Repetitive rhythms and movement may lead some participants into altered states of awareness, locally interpreted as trance or spirit possession. During certain rites, white kaolin is applied to the bodies of those believed to be under spiritual influence, symbolizing contact with the unseen world.

Animal sacrifice forms part of some ceremonies and is understood as an offering to spirits and ancestors, used to reinforce protection, restore balance, honor obligations, or seek spiritual intervention within the community. The photographs also document shrines,  ritual objects, and masked ancestral figures such as Egungun, whose concealed identities are understood to embody the presence of spirits within the community.

Photographies made in and around Ouidah, Abomey, and Porto-Novo.