French artist and writer Nanténé Traoré is a storyteller, using both words and images to relay individual and universal narratives, notably those of trans people in his acclaimed work Tu vas pas muter. Nominated for the Rencontres d’Arles Discovery Award 2024, and winner of the French Centre National du Livre discovery grant in 2022, he moves from photography to poetry and prose, creating emotions with a tenderness devoid of artifice or sensationalism. Traoré spoke to Kim Laidlaw in the latest issue of @dapperdanmagazine about how he has become the artist he is today.