History has seen countless fascinating features highlighting photographers: Martin Parr. Maybe the documentary format truly excels when presenting particularly vivid still images. Today we have one more remarkable case, by writer-director Yemi Bamiro, exploring the extraordinary career of Kwame Brathwaite—an artist, musician and civil rights advocate who exemplified a unique cultural-activist perspective.
Together with his family member Elombe, he pioneered the phrase “Black Is Beautiful” in the 1960s by capturing the African American women in Harlem: emerging African American women who emerged as the groundbreaking archetype for aesthetics, rejecting typical grooming practices and the established Caucasian model of womanhood.
The Power of Three Words
This powerful statement transformed into a transformative unifying message, an inspired memorable manifesto for change. Merely declaring that people of color were beautiful became a transformative power in culture, politics and creative expression. Brathwaite grew into integral to the civil rights African diaspora cause by documenting the sports icon leading up to his legendary Zaire bout in that era.
He became the official photographer for the musical group's international performances, and eventually was named the house photographer for the legendary Apollo theatre, building an incredible collection of black musicians. Alongside his brother, he emerged as the driving force behind securing the anti-apartheid icon to speak in New York.
Family Legacy
Brathwaite's son his namesake recounts the their quest to achieve due acknowledgment for his father's legacy after he was painfully overlooked in the prestigious Smithsonian institution, inaugurated by Barack Obama in this century.
The feature further reveals the deeply tragic inspiration of Brathwaite's passion for image making: the shocking photographs of Emmett Till, the teenage Black tragic figure whose grieving mother defiantly requested an open coffin so the brutal truth of racist violence might not be covered up.
Amidst Sorrow to Empowerment
In this representation of horror, the artist found a form of transformative realization that guided him toward photographs of beauty. His photographs powerfully conveyed celebratory strength and often subtle in messaging: he curated a fresh visual language of strength around which social causes could unite.
It is an captivating record of artistic vision that persists in resonate decades later.
