TECNO has commissioned visual artist Angélica Dass to shoot 100 Portraits of Becoming, a two-year global photography project using the Camon 50 Ultra 5G smartphone.
The first 20 portraits are live — shot outdoors in Kenya against bold draped fabrics, each accompanied by a first-person narrative from the subject. Alex Mutua Muli co-founded a dried-fruit company after watching his neighbor cut down a mango orchard at 14. Jelimo Cheboi launched GirlSkate Nairobi from a WhatsApp group. Brian Muchiri refuses to be defined by his wheelchair. Phillip Mbuthia Ranja credits dyslexia with reshaping how he sees the world.
Dass is best known for Humanæ, her long-running series matching subjects’ skin tones to Pantone swatches, visually dismantling racial binaries. This new work extends that inquiry: not just into color accuracy, but into representation, identity, and who gets seen. And how.
The project sits at the intersection of marketing and art. It’s funded by TECNO and explicitly features the Camon 50 Ultra 5G. But Dass treats the camera as a tool, not a protagonist. “Kenya showed me that meaningful portraits are never created by technology alone,” she says. “They begin with trust, with listening, and with the generosity of the people who choose to stand in front of the camera.”
That framing matters. For decades, photographic standards were built around light-skinned reference cards. Kodak introduced multiracial test cards only in the mid-1990s, just as digital imaging was taking off. Those biases didn’t vanish. They migrated into sensor design, auto-exposure logic, and AI-powered processing pipelines.
Google’s Real Tone, launched in 2021, marked a turning point. TECNO followed with Universal Tone in October 2023. A feature designed to improve skin-tone fidelity across its smartphone lineup. The Camon 50 Ultra 5G is the first device confirmed to carry it in this context.
Jack Guo, TECNO’s general manager, ties the effort to broader stakes: “Every image shapes assumptions, why it matters, who matters and how people are understood.” That’s especially urgent as AI reshapes image capture, editing, and distribution. But Dass insists the core question isn’t technical: “A photograph can put a label on you, or it can take every label away.”
The project spans five countries: Kenya, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Brazil. No release date is given for the remaining 80 portraits. TECNO has not announced pricing or availability for the Camon 50 Ultra 5G outside this campaign context. The device is not confirmed for US or Indian markets, nor is its full spec sheet disclosed in the source material.
This is not a product launch. It’s a commissioned artistic initiative. One that tests whether hardware and software built for equity can deliver on their promise when placed in the hands of someone asking harder questions than exposure compensation.
GDFiled by The Gadgets Desk
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