AFRICA.VISUAL_MEDIA

Detail from Fazal Sheikh’s book “A Sense of Uncommon Ground”
Faisal Sheikh was born to a Kenyan father and American mother. I discovered his work via an amazing book called “A Sense of Uncommon Ground” which I stumbled upon on a previous visit to Kenya (Text Book Center, natch). It is a compendium of portraits taken […]

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COLOPHON: Brief fling with the pretty but shallow new theme is over. Have reconciled with the not so attractive but reliable Cutline theme. Note to self: need to stop being such a sucker for a pretty face.

Screenshot from “Soweto Surfing” photo essay on Jamie-James Medina’s web site
Jamie-James Medina: SOWETO SURFING
Soweto is South Africa’s largest […]

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PHOTOGRAPHY: Staged Realities: The studio in African photography 1870-2004
The exhibition juxtaposes photography taken in the studio tradition in (mostly) sub-Saharan Africa in the late 19th-century by European photographers with those images taken in this tradition (mostly) in Africa from the 1950s through to the present day. The selection of images contrasts an ethnographic and pre-conceived […]

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“Once In A Lifetime”: The Talking Heads.
The Talking Heads added a healthy dose of West African juju rhythms and American funk to the post-punk quirk of their landmark album “Remain in Light”. I’ve grown to have a deep respect for David Bryne who has continued to bring what I call “bastard music” from all […]

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Screenshot from Philippe Dudouit’s web site.
Philippe Dudouit: Nigerien Movement for Justice - Northern Niger 2008.
The MNJ, Mouvement Nigerien pour la Justice (Nigerien Movement for Justice), is a Saharan rebel group founded in February 2007. It is a Tuareg group, based in Northern Niger. They have two main central claims. One is greater economic development, the […]

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Screenshot from “Cross River Nigeria” image series from Phyllis Galembo’s web site
Phyllis Galembo has an extensive series of portraits documenting the masks and costumes worn by priests and priestesses for religious rituals in Nigeria, Benin and in the diaspora from candomble in Brazil to voudou in Haiti. Her work is currently on show at the […]

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Vampire Weekend: Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
A group of preppy, polo shirt wearing, Ivy League-educated kids playing West African guitar-type driven indie-pop. That is Vampire Weekend. They sound like Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel back when world music was new and different, but the “world” in the music is part of its DNA, not just something […]

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Sign in shop window on Fredrick Douglass Avenue in Harlem
Saw the above sign in a window while out on a stroll in Harlem over the weekend and it made me think of “Hot Irons” Andrew Dosunmu’s documentary that covers some of the characters and out-of-this-world hair styles highlighted at the Hair Wars show in Detroit. […]

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Nola’s Birthday Dance, from Spike Lee’s movie “She’s Gotta Have It”
The first art house film I saw was Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It”. While it was a breakthrough for both black and indie filmmaking, its most notorious legacy was its introduction to the world of that nerdy b-boy Nike spokesperson Mars Blackmon. I, er, […]

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Picture by Hans Silvester from the book Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa by Hans Silvester,
PHOTOGRAPHY: Omo tribal decorations.
… these looks are the sole creation of the Surma and Mursi tribes of East Africa’s Omo Valley. Inspired by the wild trees, exotic flowers and lush vegetation of the area bordering Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan, […]

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