There have been many engaging features highlighting photographers: Vivian Maier. Maybe the documentary format naturally comes alive when presenting remarkably striking visual compositions. Here we have a new outstanding instance, by writer-director Yemi Bamiro, exploring the extraordinary career of Kwame Brathwaite—a photographer, musician and African American activist who exemplified a special cultural-activist approach.
Together with his brother Elombe, he effectively created the phrase “Black Is Beautiful” throughout the 1960s by photographing the Harlem models in New York: youthful Black women who became the groundbreaking template for beauty, abandoning conventional beauty standards and the predominant white ideal of femininity.
The Influence of Three Words
The iconic phrase evolved into a radical unifying message, an visionary memorable prose poem for transformation. Merely declaring that African Americans possessed beauty emerged as a liberating power in art, activism and the arts. Brathwaite emerged as a key figure in the social justice global Black cause by documenting the legendary boxer before his legendary Rumble in the Jungle in 1974.
He became the primary visual documentarian for the band's international performances, and eventually assumed the role of the house photographer for the historic Harlem venue, building an extraordinary collection of musical pioneers. Together with Elombe, he emerged as the central figure behind bringing Nelson Mandela to appear in New York.
Personal Journey
The photographer's offspring Kwame Jr recounts the personal quest to secure due acknowledgment for his parent's achievements after he was painfully excluded in Washington DC's Smithsonian institution, established by the political leader in recent years.
The feature also recounts the inexpressibly painful genesis of the photographer's dedication to visual storytelling: the disturbing pictures of Emmett Till, the teenage civil rights murder victim whose bereaved parent defiantly insisted on an public viewing so the violent nature of racial hatred could not be hidden.
Amidst Sorrow to Hope
In this image of horror, the artist found a form of anti-epiphany that guided him toward visual representations of community. His photographs were eloquent of community pride and frequently nuanced in approach: he curated a innovative symbolic representation of pride upon which political movements could mobilize.
The documentary stands as an inspiring testament of artistic vision that persists in empower through the years.
