History has seen many engaging features about visual artists: Tish Murtha. Perhaps the documentary format particularly shines when displaying exceptionally powerful photographs. Here we have one more remarkable case, from filmmaker Yemi Bamiro, documenting the impressive life's work of Kwame Brathwaite—a photographer, performer and African American activist who embodied a special politico-aesthetic perspective.
Together with his family member Elombe, he effectively created the slogan “Black Is Beautiful” throughout the 1960s by documenting the Harlem models in the cultural epicenter: emerging women of color who emerged as the groundbreaking template for aesthetics, moving beyond traditional grooming practices and the predominant Eurocentric model of womanhood.
The Power of a Simple Phrase
The iconic phrase became a transformative call to action, an visionary three-word declaration for progress. Merely to assert that African Americans radiated beauty proved to be a transformative power in culture, politics and culture. The photographer became part of the Black power pan-Africanist movement by photographing the sports icon prior to his historic championship fight in 1974.
He served as the exclusive visual documentarian for the Jackson 5's continental journey, and subsequently assumed the role of the house photographer for the historic cultural institution, building an incredible archive of black musicians. In collaboration with Elombe, he emerged as the central figure behind arranging for Nelson Mandela to address the public in Harlem.
Family Legacy
The photographer's offspring his namesake recounts the their mission to secure appropriate credit for his father's legacy after he was painfully overlooked in the prestigious National Museum of African American History and Culture, inaugurated by the former president in recent years.
This documentary also recounts the profoundly sorrowful genesis of Brathwaite's interest in visual storytelling: the horrendous images of Emmett Till, the adolescent civil rights lynching victim whose bereaved parent courageously insisted on an open coffin so the violent nature of racist violence would not be hidden.
Amidst Sorrow to Beauty
From this image of tragedy, the visionary found a kind of anti-epiphany that guided him toward images of community. His work beautifully expressed celebratory strength and typically not overtly political: he curated a innovative symbolic representation of strength through which social causes could gather.
The documentary stands as an exhilarating testament of artistic vision that continues to resonate across generations.