text by JEFF RIAN photos from Roxane II by VIVIANE SASSEN, published by OODEE Viviane Sassen lived for three years, before the age of five, in west Kenya, where her father ran a polio clinic, but she returned to the Netherlands transformed. Africa’s vivid physicality and graphic, colorful clothing left an indelible mark. At 16 she revisited Africa, revitalizing her memories. She also began to use a camera to explore youthful sexuality, shooting nude portraits of herself and friends, trying to distort the male gaze through different tactics of concealing and revealing. Later she studied fashion design at Arnheim’s Royal Academy, modeled for designers Viktor & Rolf, and then switched to photography, getting her degree in Utrecht in 1992 with a thesis on photography books. Sassen has since made many books, such as her latest release, Roxane II, published by oodee. It would seem that photography released her hybrid genie…