Rawness used as a tool of empowerment. A shutter that constructs a narrative around the individuals captured. A constant return to documenting the movement of the human form and the beauty of the black body. A visual activism. A visual voice.
Dana Scruggs is a photographer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her string of victories in the photography profession include capturing Tori Bowie (Olympic gold-medalist and the fastest woman in the world) for ESPN’s 10th edition of their Body Issue. With this editorial Dana broke barriers by being the first black female photographer to have contributed to this issue.
A raw approach becomes a voice for a community and acts to represent and celebrate the black body in all its infinite beauty. The realness in her work showcases individuals in a perspective that is hardly seen but mostly felt. By this I mean that her work translates as an emotion – as an embodiment of the people she photographs.
In an interview with DAILY RITUAL Dana expresses her view on the industry, “Representation matters not just in front of the camera but behind it as well. Brands, mags, & galleries need to look at how they may be feeding into a culture that’s not inclusive of Black women and not inclusive of women of color. It’s not enough to have Black women in your magazine, ad campaign or grace the walls of your gallery. As artists, our voices have been underrepresented and underemployed for far too long. Make the effort to seek us out… MAKE THE EFFORT TO BE INTERSECTIONAL.”
“A visual dissertation, a meditation on time, place, memory and personal history; amalgamating the passage through life and dreams, bridging philosophy, politics and prose. A reflection of my being in abstract form.” – Nkhensani Mkhari on his work.
A dreamy reality caked with attention-halting architectural shots, documentary images and glamorous fashion depictions come together to create the visual language of a budding artist. Nkhensani Mkhari is a young multi-disciplinary practitioner who grew up in Mabopane, township in the North of Pretoria. “I consider myself a hybrid artist,” he tells me. Completing his studies in Film and Television production at the Open Window Institute in 2016, he traverses between directing films, script writing, photography, art direction and music.
His childhood was spent around a hum of creativity with his father practicing as a landscape artist and his mother as a Setswana teacher. Nkhensani shares with me that his mother’s vocation acted as an introduction to language and narrative. “I’ve had an affinity for storytelling and aesthetic for as long as I can remember. Cognizance of how concepts and ideas can affect society drove me towards wanting to participate in the creative field.”
Non-linear, acoustic, literary and artistic attentiveness attracted him to his chosen mediums of expression. “Growing up in the internet age assisted in idealizing and realizing my artistic vision. I always felt like we live in a multidimensional universe, which is also part of a multidimensional infinite consciousness we call God or the universe or nkulu nkulu or creation. We are multidimensional actualities. Therefore, I feel like my work should be multidimensional if it is to have a remarkable influence on human freedom. I make art in the hope that it will call me and the audience to a deeper awareness of living itself.” An interest in Afro Futurism was explored with his final film during his studies. The premise of the motion picture was that of software that alters human beings’ consciousness and is used by the government to indoctrinate citizens. Since graduation, he has been occupying himself with the writing of an African feature-length film. To add to his merits, the passionate creative self-published a photobook ‘grain’ Volume 1 and a conceptual EP, ‘23′ that he describes to me as a personal interpretation of science fiction soundscapes – released under the pseudonym, Ndzilo Xiluva.
“I’ve also been busy shooting an array of photo series, portraits, editorials and experimental films themed on a range of subjects from mythology to Artificial Intelligence, I’m fascinated by the prospect of these ideas and how they influence society especially African communities.” The photographic side of Nkhensani can only be described as one of calculated risk. Utilizing manual, vintage Japanese film cameras and countless rolls of film as his visual narrative tools. “I come up with titles and captions from conversations, reading books or watching movies, certain words and phrases stand out. These titles usually form the centrifuge for my conceptual photographs like fashion editorials and commercial work, I’ll research the etymology of the word or the origin of the phrase or word and create a mood board from that. With my fine art photography, it’s a more organic cathartic process based on intuition, the work is unscripted.”
His widespread influences include Pantsula culture, African Neo-expressionism, conceptual fashion, Jean Michel Basquiat, Zanele Muholi, FAKA, Frank Ocean and Claude Monet, to name a few. Delving deeper Nkhensani shares with me the concept of his ongoing personal portrait series, ‘Portraits for Consolation’. It is focused on the idea of the “Gaze” and it confronts commonly held notions of beauty.
A preference for analogue photography is explained in his statement, “I like how skin tones, light and tone are rendered on emulsions. I like the simplicity of the technology, the mechanics, chemistry and the historical aspect. I like seeing photographs develop in a seemingly magical way in the darkroom, it’s an enthralling process I feel like films limitations have been advantageous in developing my eye.” From my own experience, I tend to agree with Nkhensani; nothing develops your eye, technical skill and understanding of lighting combinations quite like the unknown world of an image caught on film, only to be reviewed after development.
Nkhensani, like many young content creators, chooses not to box himself into a specific field of photographic study. “I don’t think photography is fissiparous. I shoot from an artistic eye whether it’s fashion, documentary or fine arts.”
Nkhensani’s sound technical understanding of his gear, his unique focus on titles, the etymology of words as well as an uncanny ability to traverse a multitude of photographic disciplines shows not only skill but talent. The artist has another ability, that which is perhaps the most difficult to cultivate – Nkhensani is a psychologist. To be a photographer means to have an innate understanding of the human psyche. The intimacy recorded in his technically excellent images is a clear signifier of his ability to relate to the models in his unforgettable images. His experience orientated work is hoped to take on a more holistic nature in the coming year. Keep an eye out for him, he’s taken my cognitive consciousness by a storm. On another note, I want a print of one of his images on a t-shirt.
Photographer, Art Director and stylist Daniel Obasi‘s latest offering is the creation of an Afro Futurist fashion film for the eminent textile designers Vlisco and A Whitespace Creative Agency (AWCA) titled ‘An Alien in Town’.
A sequence of lush palm trees and fauna are contrasted by the earthy brown landscape that acts as a bordered scenery. From a distance, a motorcycle slowly appears, distinguished by its cattle horn adornment. Its riders in strikingly styled fashion combinations. They are met with the alien (Benita Ango). A blue life form has her back turned towards her onlookers. With a gentle movement, she turns to meet the gaze of her audience.
The earth below her feet mimics the surface of a crater. The viewer is met with transitioning images of space, the alien in profile caught in a medium frame as well as a wide shot that exemplifies her otherworldliness. She faints.
Her onlookers take on a more active role and with the curiosity and near naivety of children, they approach her. They take her in and attempt to teach her the ways of humankind, of human culture. With the metropolis of Lagos as the setting of this tale, the viewer is taken through a variety of scenarios in which the alien life form finds itself. This emphasizes how out of place she is in this human world. She examines this new found space for the first time and is clearly amazed by all that she witnesses. She studied her hands, a book, the television. Her alien-ness is highlighted by her incorrect use of a fork and non-intrinsic manner of attempting to consume food. What is deeply apparent is an emotional detachment that flows through the entire piece. It is implied that the alien identifies more with a mannequin than with the humans who have given her refuge.
Obasi’s work takes the form of a gestural film as there is no audible dialogue and yet, the gestures and narrative are well woven together so that the simple storyline cannot be construed as one of haphazard play (every scene has been well thought out). A theme that is carried throughout the film is that of fashion. We see the male character played by Oke Tobi Subomi in the film take the human femme (Rebecca Fabunmi) and alien into a photo shoot setting made up of Vlisco fashion and a backdrop pattern of black and white squares against which the fashion ensembles stand out triumphant. Headpieces, beaded on the humans and more futuristic on the alien take centre stage.A scene lingers in a dark room with red light and as we see the last of the alien’s stay the lighting takes on a blue, extra-terrestrial statement. The darkroom where the male character develops his images of the fashion shoot act as a possible signifier towards an act of creating a physical object – a proof of what had transpired – an alien visiting Lagos. Obasi ends off his piece with the alien in the same setting she was originally found and the viewer assumes that it is the last that will be seen or heard from the alien. The upbeat soundtrack that flows through the piece assists in making this film light-hearted and the viewer does not perceive her voyage home as one that should be taken in with sadness.Obasi’s contemporary Afro Futurist film is vibrant and celebrates Nigerian culture as well as focuses on African fashion and the energy that it carries. His considerations of the colour of lighting and the possible symbolism connected, adds another layer to this work. His ability to keep a concise narrative throughout the film despite having no audible dialogue verges on brilliance. I look forward to his next offering.