We have witnessed many compelling films about photographers: Martin Parr. Perhaps the film medium truly excels when showcasing particularly vivid still images. Here we have a new remarkable example, by creator Yemi Bamiro, exploring the impressive career of Kwame Brathwaite—an artist, artist and civil rights advocate who exemplified a distinct cultural-activist approach.
Together with his sibling Elombe, he pioneered the phrase “Black Is Beautiful” throughout the 1960s by documenting the Harlem models in Harlem: young African American women who became the sensational template for beauty, rejecting conventional beauty standards and the established white ideal of female beauty.
The Power of a Simple Phrase
The iconic phrase became a transformative rallying cry, an visionary three-word declaration for transformation. Merely stating that black people were beautiful proved to be a liberating force in culture, activism and the arts. The artist emerged as integral to the social justice African diaspora struggle by documenting the legendary boxer before his iconic championship fight in 1974.
He was appointed the official visual documentarian for the band's continental journey, and eventually assumed the role of the official visual chronicler for the legendary cultural institution, creating an incredible archive of black musicians. Together with Elombe, he emerged as the central figure behind securing the anti-apartheid icon to appear in the community.
Personal Journey
His son his namesake shares the family's quest to ensure due acknowledgment for his parent's achievements after he was painfully excluded in Washington DC's National Museum of African American History and Culture, inaugurated by the former president in 2016.
The film additionally explores the inexpressibly painful inspiration of the artist's passion for photography: the horrendous photographs of Emmett Till, the young African American murder victim whose mourning family member defiantly demanded an uncovered casket so the brutal truth of racist violence would not be covered up.
From Tragedy to Beauty
From this image of tragedy, the visionary discovered a type of anti-epiphany that directed him toward visual representations of beauty. His photographs beautifully expressed empowering beauty and frequently not overtly political: he developed a new iconography of empowerment around which political movements could mobilize.
This represents an inspiring chronicle of artistic vision that still resonate across generations.
