Theguardian_ In 2011, the French-Senegalese photographer Delphine Diallo got a call from Joanne Petit-Frère, an artist who weaves majestic headdresses out of synthetic hair, asking to collaborate. She organised a photoshoot for the following morning with an all-Black, all-female creative crew. The resulting series, Highness, features a model wearing masks and headdresses that evoke African royalty as far back as the Egyptian queen Nefertiti. “I was born into a world where the image of Black women was objectified,” says Diallo. With this work, celebrating what Diallo calls the divine female body, she says: “I was like, enough! It really informed my understanding of the female gaze.”