John Moussa Kalapo was born in Bamako, Mali, in 1983. Originally trained as an accountant, in 2010 he enrolled at the Photography Training Center of Bamako where he did a conceptual-creative and art photography course. After benefiting from a bursary (Tierney Fellowship) in 2015 from the Tierney Family Foundation, Kalapo did a documentary photography course and a creative residency at the prestigious The Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg.
Kalapo uses narration and photojournalism to tackle daily societal issues. He worked as a digital technician on the Malian photographic archives project which endeavors to conserve, digitize and, archive the works of famous African photographers such as Malick Sidibe, Abderrahmane Sakaly, Tijane Sitou, Adama Kouyate, Mamadou Cisse and Félix Diallo.
John KALAPO, makes photo reportage trips for:
- NGOs: Swiss-contact, One Word, Spana UK, Water-Aid, CTA- agricole, European Union, PAECIS, Caritas-Suisse, Osiwa –
- Companies: Safran-France, the company Jumbo-Mali, Sama Transport Mali / Ivory Coast.
Eagles EYE, Chinese company KK - News agencies like: AFP, EPA, GETTY, and Reuters
In recent years, he has distinguished himself by winning several prestigious awards:
- Photo competition prize «How is Africa different? «Of the information portal www.afriquinfos.com 2011
( Best Selling Images Award on Gettyimages (Bamako Photography Training Center) 2011 - Winner of the 2nd Innovation Prize at the 3rd edition of the Photography Fortnight in Benin.
- Winner of the Tierney Family Foundation -Bamako Awards in collaboration with Market Photo workshop 2015 • Winner-representing Mali in photography of the 8th games of the Francophonie Abidjan 2016
- Second prize of the Wiki-loves Africa photo competition at the Bamako manuscript fairs 2017-2018
- Third Prize of the 2018 Mali Inter-Biennale Photography Festival • Shortlisted for the Henrike Grohs Art Award 2022