There have been many compelling films highlighting photographers: Vivian Maier. Maybe the film medium truly excels when showcasing exceptionally powerful photographs. Now we have another remarkable instance, by writer-director Yemi Bamiro, chronicling the extraordinary professional journey of Kwame Brathwaite—an artist, musician and social justice champion who represented a special politico-aesthetic vision.
In partnership with his sibling Elombe, he effectively created the expression “Black Is Beautiful” during the sixties by documenting the Harlem models in Harlem: emerging Black women who transformed into the groundbreaking template for aesthetics, rejecting conventional grooming practices and the usual Eurocentric standard of womanhood.
The Impact of a Revolutionary Slogan
The iconic phrase became a transformative call to action, an brilliant memorable manifesto for change. Just to assert that African Americans possessed beauty became a transformative influence in society, activism and creative expression. The artist became integral to the Black power pan-Africanist cause by documenting Muhammad Ali leading up to his historic Zaire bout in the seventies.
He was appointed the primary photographer for the Jackson 5's continental journey, and subsequently assumed the role of the resident artist for the historic Harlem venue, building an amazing portfolio of African American artists. In collaboration with his sibling, he emerged as the key organizer behind bringing the South African leader to appear in New York.
Family Legacy
Brathwaite's son Kwame Jr recounts the family's campaign to ensure due acknowledgment for his father's legacy after he was painfully excluded in the nation's capital's National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened by Barack Obama in 2016.
The feature also recounts the inexpressibly painful genesis of the photographer's dedication to image making: the horrendous pictures of the lynching martyr, the adolescent African American murder victim whose bereaved parent defiantly demanded an open coffin so the brutal truth of racist violence would not be covered up.
Through Darkness to Hope
Through this image of horror, the visionary encountered a form of profound understanding that led him toward images of community. His photographs powerfully conveyed celebratory strength and frequently not overtly political: he curated a innovative symbolic representation of strength upon which social causes could mobilize.
It is an captivating record of cultural impact that still resonate through the years.
