There have been countless fascinating features about image makers: Tish Murtha. Maybe the documentary format particularly shines when presenting exceptionally powerful photographs. Now arrives one more outstanding example, by writer-director Yemi Bamiro, chronicling the remarkable professional journey of Kwame Brathwaite—a photographer, musician and social justice champion who exemplified a special artistic-political perspective.
In partnership with his brother Elombe, he effectively created the slogan “Black Is Beautiful” in the mid-century era by photographing the Harlem models in New York: emerging women of color who became the groundbreaking archetype for beauty, rejecting conventional beauty standards and the predominant Caucasian standard of femininity.
The Power of a Simple Phrase
Black Is Beautiful became a radical unifying message, an inspired three-word prose poem for change. Simply declaring that African Americans radiated beauty became a transformative force in society, social movements and creative expression. The artist emerged as a key figure in the Black power African diaspora movement by photographing Muhammad Ali leading up to his iconic championship fight in 1974.
He became the primary visual documentarian for the Jackson 5's international performances, and later assumed the role of the resident artist for the iconic Harlem venue, building an extraordinary archive of black musicians. Alongside his sibling, he emerged as the key organizer behind bringing Nelson Mandela to appear in the community.
Personal Journey
His son the younger Brathwaite recounts the their mission to achieve appropriate credit for his father's legacy after he was painfully excluded in the prestigious National Museum of African American History and Culture, established by the former president in recent years.
The feature further reveals the deeply tragic origin of the artist's dedication to photography: the horrendous photographs of the lynching martyr, the adolescent civil rights lynching victim whose grieving mother defiantly demanded an public viewing so the horrific reality of bigoted brutality would not be concealed.
Through Darkness to Beauty
In this image of tragedy, the visionary discovered a kind of anti-epiphany that guided him toward photographs of beauty. His photographs powerfully conveyed celebratory strength and typically subtle in messaging: he established a innovative symbolic representation of strength through which social causes could mobilize.
This represents an exhilarating testament of creative genius that still empower through the years.
