Sunshine flows through a window into Christian Cassiel’s Tottenham studio – especially welcome on a January afternoon. ‘I need light,’ says the 32-year-old, ‘but it’s actually not good for an archive.’ He laughs, adding that the sun could slowly bleach his collection of rare books on African design. Yet he seems fairly relaxed. ‘Seed is not a conventional archive. People are allowed to pick up and engage with the objects. You don’t have to be careful.’

Cassiel is a Huddersfield-born, London-based photographer of Jamaican heritage. As he travelled around Africa, taking warm portraits and tender shots of plants in the Gambia, Senegal and Uganda, it ignited an interest in the continent’s material cultures. He picked up vessels, religious artefacts and chairs (which are of particular interest to Cassiel). Back in the UK, he supplemented this growing collection with metal works and wood carvings procured from Spitalfields Market or Ebay. Among them is a handcrafted iron ornament that sits on his windowsill, used as currency in pre-colonial Cameroon. ‘I love the idea of the object being of value itself,’ says Cassiel. ‘A beautiful thing that can also be used for trade.’