There have been many engaging features focusing on visual artists: Vivian Maier. Perhaps the documentary format naturally comes alive when presenting remarkably striking visual compositions. Here we have another outstanding case, from writer-director Yemi Bamiro, documenting the impressive life's work of Kwame Brathwaite—a photographer, performer and civil rights advocate who embodied a special politico-aesthetic vision.
Alongside his family member Elombe, he pioneered the phrase “Black Is Beautiful” during the sixties by photographing the Grandassa Models in Harlem: emerging African American women who became the groundbreaking standard for beauty, moving beyond typical beauty standards and the established white model of womanhood.
The Impact of a Revolutionary Slogan
Black Is Beautiful transformed into a transformative rallying cry, an brilliant memorable manifesto for transformation. Simply to assert that African Americans possessed beauty proved to be a transformative power in culture, social movements and culture. The photographer became integral to the Black power pan-Africanist struggle by capturing images of the sports icon prior to his legendary championship fight in 1974.
He served as the primary visual documentarian for the musical group's international performances, and eventually was named the official visual chronicler for the historic Apollo theatre, assembling an incredible archive of black musicians. Alongside his sibling, he emerged as the central figure behind arranging for the South African leader to appear in Harlem.
Family Legacy
The photographer's offspring the younger Brathwaite recounts the their mission to ensure due acknowledgment for his family heritage after he was painfully overlooked in the nation's capital's National Museum of African American History and Culture, established by the political leader in recent years.
The feature also recounts the profoundly sorrowful inspiration of the photographer's passion for visual storytelling: the disturbing photographs of Emmett Till, the young Black murder victim whose grieving mother courageously requested an public viewing so the horrific reality of racist violence might not be hidden.
From Tragedy to Hope
From this vision of tragedy, the visionary discovered a form of transformative realization that directed him toward photographs of community. His images beautifully expressed empowering beauty and frequently not overtly political: he curated a fresh iconography of empowerment through which activist groups could gather.
It is an captivating chronicle of creative genius that still resonate across generations.
