History has seen many compelling documentaries highlighting image makers: Martin Parr. Maybe the film medium truly excels when presenting exceptionally powerful photographs. Here comes one more outstanding case, directed by writer-director Yemi Bamiro, documenting the remarkable career of Kwame Brathwaite—a photographer, performer and social justice champion who represented a distinct cultural-activist approach.
In partnership with his sibling Elombe, he virtually invented the slogan “Black Is Beautiful” in the 1960s by documenting the Harlem models in the cultural epicenter: youthful Black women who became the transformative standard for visual appeal, abandoning traditional grooming practices and the predominant white model of female beauty.
The Impact of a Simple Phrase
This powerful statement became a radical unifying message, an inspired memorable manifesto for transformation. Merely to assert that black people radiated beauty became a liberating force in society, social movements and creative expression. Brathwaite became a key figure in the Black power African diaspora struggle by documenting the sports icon leading up to his historic championship fight in the seventies.
He served as the exclusive photographer for the band's continental journey, and eventually became the official visual chronicler for the historic Harlem venue, creating an extraordinary archive of black musicians. In collaboration with Elombe, he emerged as the central figure behind bringing the anti-apartheid icon to address the public in New York.
Personal Journey
The photographer's offspring the younger Brathwaite shares the their mission to achieve due acknowledgment for his father's legacy after he was unjustly ignored in Washington DC's National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened by the former president in this century.
The film further reveals the inexpressibly painful inspiration of Brathwaite's interest in photography: the shocking pictures of Emmett Till, the teenage civil rights lynching victim whose mourning family member courageously insisted on an public viewing so the violent nature of racist violence would not be hidden.
Through Darkness to Empowerment
Through this vision of horror, Brathwaite found a kind of anti-epiphany that directed him toward photographs of beauty. His work were eloquent of celebratory strength and typically not overtly political: he developed a new iconography of pride upon which political movements could mobilize.
This represents an captivating record of creative genius that persists in resonate across generations.
