Hugo is one of a new generation of savvy young photographers who have emerged from post-apartheid South Africa with work that challenges our preconceptions about their country. Alongside the likes of Guy Tillim and the young Magnum photographer Mikhael Subotsky, Hugo represents what might be called a new photographic consciousness as regards the representation of Africa to the West.
Screen shot from Mobolaji’s Dawodu’s portfolio site FASHION: Mobolaji Dawodu: Stylist. Nigerian-born, NYC-based Dawodu is a contributing style editor at The Fader magazine (and frequently stylist for Andrew Dosunmu and Marc Baptiste). He is also an up and coming designer.
Wiley is known for his stylized paintings of young, urban African-American men in poses borrowed from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European figurative paintings, a practice he started in the early 2000s while an artist in residence at the Studio Museum. Over the last two years, Wiley has expanded his project by living and working abroad; he temporarily relocates to different countries and opens satellite studios to become familiar with local culture, history and art. His “The World Stage” series is the result of these travels.
New York Times slideshow of Jamel Shabbazz’ images PHOTOGRAPHY: Chronicle of Urban Life: More Jamel Shabbazz goodness.
New York Times slideshow of Alix Dejean’s images PHOTOGRAPHY: Harlem Lens. Haitian-born, Brooklyn resident Alix Dejean has been taking pictures of Harlem’s residents for decades.
Screenshot of “Empire Strikes Back” images FASHION: The Empire Strikes Black: Part-time Malindi resident Naomi Campbell shoot around New York City with photographer Mario Sorrenti for V magazine. [via ffffound]
Evolution of cover image of of Grace Jones’ album “Island Life”
Like the image above, Grace Jones, the icon not the person, was a myth-making collaboration between Grace Jones the woman, and Jean-Paul Goude a French-born, New York-based illustrator, photographer, choreographer, costume designer, art director. Grace Jones (born Grace Mendoza in Jamaica) was a model and a budding disco singer, when she met Goude via Andy Warhol in the now legendary NYC downtown culture scene. In her live shows she was playing off her strong masculine features to present an androgynous, outrageous persona to the gay boys who were the mainstay of the disco scene of the time.
Together they built on the androgyny and played up the geometry/angularity of her masculine features (via hair and clothes) recalling the abstract forms on African masks that had so inspired European modern artists like Picasso. Jones and Goude also remixed all the cross-cultural influences (African-American, Puerto Rican, Jones’ own Jamaican background) coursing through the neighborhoods of New York. Add in Goude’s mentalspace and his personal obsession with the exotic/primitive/erotic aspects of African beauty filtered through his French sensiblities. Throw in the raw, sex and drug-fueled creativity/experimentation happening in New York at the time, sprinkle in the then new technology-driven music called New Wave. And unleash the whole mess in a cocktail of costume, props, fashion, performance, body movement, hair, video, music, attitude.
Grace Jones: Demolition Man, part of a performance art piece called “A One Man Show” from 1982
The results of this collaboration introduced a new post-modern archetype of the black woman in pop culture. It joined Josephine Baker, Lena Horne, the Supremes, icons who came before and Erykah Badu after. The image of Grace Jones was postmodern in how it fought sexual, racial, gender stereotypes and taboos by embracing and de-fanging them, postmodern in how it defiantly resisted any attempt at categorization since it was the dizzying combination of so many things.
I recently read the book “Jungle Fever” and came away impressed by Jean-Paul Goode’s groundbreaking art. But it was disturbing to read how he was so open in admitting his obsession with the exotic and erotic qualities of Black women and how much he let it drive his creative work. At best it was naive and presumptuous, at worst, racist. But really, artists are successful to the extent they make real what is going on inside their heads, making it both specific and universal, timely and timeless. In that respect Jean-Paul Goude was wildly successful, objectification of notwithstanding.
Jean-Paul Goude: Retrospective Those of us of a certain, cough, age must remember the surreal Chanel Egoiste ads.
PHOTOGRAPHY: WNYC Culture: Streetshots Jamel Shabbazz at work in Central Park.
Screenshot from 21st Century Maroon Colony website FASHION: 21st Century Maroon Colony Fall/Winter 2007 Collection. Great photography/styling highlighting this streetwear fashion collective repping the “Afro-triangle”. Not sure about pangas as props, though, (too much of a negative connotation to me, given the panga-executed violence in Kenya recently) [via EA collective]
Screenshot of slideshow on website for “Curse of the Black Gold” PHOTOGRAPHY: New book: Curse of the Black Gold: 50 years of Gold in the Niger Delta [quicktime movie]. Photography and audio commentary on the impact of oil on the land and people of the Niger Delta.
Recently the songs of Mahmoud Ahmed (Ethiopiques Vol. 1) have been on heavy rotation here at casa forota. It is amazing that Ethiopia and Kenya are neighbors, but I know next to nothing about this amazing 3,000 year old culture. In fact, a straight line that runs through Isiolo and Lamu forms a cultural barrier for those, like me, who have a world view shaped by all south and west of that line.
In truth, that isolation is the result of the geography of Ethiopia (fortress-like highlands), but also a chauvinistic attitude towards outsider cultures, African or not. The results of this isolation can be seen in the Ethiopian music of a period that began in the 1960’s and ended in 1974, a time when the country’s capital was called “Swinging Addis”. Like all the youth of this time everywhere, Ethiopian musicians were influenced by rock, jazz and funk, even though their music is not quite recognizable as such. It is completely unique, completely Ethiopian: hypnotic, weird, soulful, passionate, irresistible. Until recently, modern Ethiopian music was for locals only consumption, although that is slowly changing thanks to the brilliant Ethiopiques series. Mulatu Astatque did receive some notoreity recently, when his music featured prominently in the Jim Jarmusch film “Broken Flowers”, and legends like Mahmoud Ahmed have been touring the west playing to more than just Habesha crowds.
Source: Francis Falcet in an excellent 2 part interview about the musical history of Ethiopia: part one part two
GO SEE: if you live in the NYC area, there will be a free concert at the Damrosch Park Bandshell near Lincoln Plaza featuring Mahmoud Ahmed, Alemayehu Eshete and Gétatchèw Mèkurya, details here.
Tuesday July 08th 2008, 1:35 pm
Filed under: fashion, race
Very interesting take on the lack of diversity on the runways and editorial spreads of the fashion world. The nouveau riche consumers of fashion live more in Dubai, Moscow and Shanghai, less so in New York, London and Berlin; in places that know nothing of (or could care less for) the 30 or so years of efforts its taken to expand the definition of beauty in the West.
Kamitsis said she believed the white-out of black girls was because labels had become more important than creativity in contemporary fashion. “The product is what counts, the product is more important than the model’s personality.
Today’s style, in contrast with times when to be different was what counted, was “more uniform, more neutral” and designers themselves subjected to marketing strategies and zero-risk production diktats.
“The market for fashion goods, emerging nations such as China, Russia, the Arab world, are countries that are not specially known for favouring social or cultural mixes,” she said.
“White models are without a doubt the easiest ways of attracting these clients.”
According to Renee Dujac-Cassou, who heads Paris’ Crystal models agency, “blue-eyed blondes have always been the dream type. It’s as simple as that.”
“A beautiful African woman is not the dream type, neither is a Tibetan or a Chinese princess.” The number of non-white models parading on catwalks, she said, “will always be extremely limited.”
