Black Is Beautiful: A Revealing Tale of Game-Changing Photographer Kwame Brathwaite
There have been countless fascinating documentaries focusing on visual artists: Tish Murtha. Perhaps the film medium truly excels when displaying exceptionally powerful still images. Today arrives a new exceptional case, by creator Yemi Bamiro, documenting the remarkable professional journey of Kwame Brathwaite—an artist, artist and civil rights advocate who embodied a distinct politico-aesthetic perspective.
Alongside his family member Elombe, he pioneered the slogan “Black Is Beautiful” throughout the sixties by photographing the Grandassa Models in Harlem: emerging women of color who became the transformative standard for aesthetics, abandoning conventional grooming practices and the predominant Eurocentric model of female beauty.
The Impact of a Revolutionary Slogan
This powerful statement became a radical unifying message, an inspired concise declaration for transformation. Just stating that African Americans possessed beauty became a liberating power in society, social movements and culture. Brathwaite became a key figure in the Black power African diaspora movement by capturing images of the legendary boxer prior to his legendary Rumble in the Jungle in the seventies.
He became the exclusive photographer for the Jackson 5's African tour, and later became the official visual chronicler for the historic cultural institution, building an extraordinary portfolio of African American artists. In collaboration with Elombe, he emerged as the central figure behind securing the South African leader to speak in Harlem.
Personal Journey
His son his namesake shares the personal quest to ensure appropriate credit for his father's legacy after he was hurtfully ignored in Washington DC's National Museum of African American History and Culture, inaugurated by the political leader in recent years.
The film also recounts the deeply tragic inspiration of the photographer's dedication to image making: the disturbing photographs of Emmett Till, the teenage civil rights tragic figure whose mourning family member boldly demanded an open coffin so the horrific reality of racist violence might not be hidden.
Amidst Sorrow to Empowerment
In this image of horror, Brathwaite encountered a kind of profound understanding that directed him toward photographs of community. His photographs beautifully expressed celebratory strength and often nuanced in approach: he developed a fresh symbolic representation of pride upon which political movements could mobilize.
It is an inspiring chronicle of cultural impact that persists in empower through the years.