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Aindrea Emelife is an acclaimed curator, art critic and art historian from London. Starting at The Courtauld Institute of Art, where she completed a BA in History of Art, she has quickly gone on to become a ground-breaking new voice in the art world, delivering talks and l ectures at UNESCO, The Times, the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum, amongst others. -
Taking up space is resistance. Frederick Douglass, the African-American abolitionist leader, is an important example of how the Black image can be revolutionary. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a more remarkable story of self-determination and advancement than the life of Frederick Douglass. After escaping slavery in Maryland, he became one of the most famous intellectuals of his time, advising presidents and lecturing to thousands on a range of causes including women's rights and Irish home rule. He is also best known for his use of photography as a political and social tool, as he set out to make himself the most photographed man of the 19th Century, surpassing even Abraham Lincoln.
Douglass, discussing the accessibility of photography, mused that “What was once the special and exclusive luxury of the rich and great now is the privilege of all. The humblest servant girl may now possess a picture of herself such as the wealth of kings could not purchase fifty years ago”. Douglass sought to show the many variations of Black subjectivity and in doing so manifested the groundbreaking idea of visual Black plurality and a broader representation of Black life. In a similar vein, a century later, Mary Church Terrell, daughter of former slaves and national leader for civil rights and womens suffrage, followed suit and distributed images of herself that sought to rupture the preconceptions of Blackness, challenging who society expected them to be. -
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The development of Black photography studies enabled communities even greater control of the way photographs were styled and staged so they could more authentically reflect Black life. The first Black-owned photography studio was established in Detroit in 1915 by Harvey C Jackson, who collaborated with communities to create cinematic scenes of important events. Posing for a photograph was an empowering act; it remains so. It served as a way to counteract caricatures that distorted facial features and mocked Black society instead demonstrating dignity in the Black experience. Now, photographers further this by boldly reclaiming the multiplicity of the Black experience and pushing the mission further.
Blackness is not a monolith; this exhibition shines light on the many aspects of Blackness. Colourism, diaspora, queerness and cultural heritage are explored by the camera with powerful rage, beauty and celebration. We are in the midst of a powerful new generation of Black photographers, transcending limitations and reflecting Blackness beyond limits and into the realms of which we did not know possible. With strength, grace, and power – Imaging Blackness is an immersion into the culturally rich worlds of these new trailblazers.- Aindrea Emelife, Curator
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"The title “We Matter” is about us as black people. I was thinking about black men and how much we do matter, even to those who don’t think we do. I want them to know that we do. No matter how we look. We matter in all settings. If we’re in a jail cell, we still matter. We matter in a classroom. We matter all over. And we can appear in places like the National Portrait Gallery. I can tell my daughter, when she’s old enough to understand one day, that there was a Black man in a durag hanging up on those walls, two rooms from President Obama’s portrait. That sh*t crazy." - Adrian Octavius Walker
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"My intention is to change the gaze in photography, create a new narrative to empower black women and create new experiences for consciousness to expand. Women are in need for different kinds of narrative. The woman's body should be one of the most respectable places on earth. Without her, we will not be born, nor either feeling unconditional love. So many black women who have been abused, disrespected, betrayed understand the power of healing because they had no other choice to carry on with life. For centuries, the Patriarchal society transformed the black woman body as an object. I want to bring a great new vision of black female archetypes: the explorer, the queen, the goddess, the innocent, the sage, the mother, the caregiver, the ruler, the lover, the spiritual warrior, the magician, the everywoman, so many others. It is the birth of the divine feminine within me (and within all of us ) that comes through our families and ancestors, an energy which was once oppressed." - Delphine Diallo
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Yannis Guibinga
Silicone Sunset III, 2020Giclee print
76.2 cm x 50.8 cm
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