In Maputo Diary, Ditte Haarløv Johnsen brings together 25 years of her photographic work from Mozambique’s capital, Maputo — the city where she grew up during the civil war and has subsequently returned to over the past two decades.
Through 121 photographs, accompanied by diary notes and new texts, Maputo Diary portrays life, love, and survival among people living on the margins of society, blending social documentary with artistic investigation in images of friends, family, and everyday moments in Maputo. At its heart lies Haarløv Johnsen’s friendship with the “Manas” (“Sisters”) — a group of transgender individuals, many of whom are no longer alive. Maputo Diary stands as both a personal testimony and a universal story — one that finds beauty, dignity, and humanity even in life’s most vulnerable moments.

“Maybe that’s what Maputo Diary is too. An insistence on bearing witness to the lives of others when nobody else was there to make sure they didn’t just disappear.”
— Ditte Haarløv Johnsen, Maputo Diary