AFRICA.VISUAL_MEDIA

“I just wanted to finish the process which was started. I don’t want to say who I voted for. I just wanted ink on my finger.” –Judith, 65

A fearful day in Zimbabwe. New York Times photo essay of partially obscured portraits of voters in Zimbabwe with statements of why they voted.

BLK JKS: “Mzabalazo” live at Harriet’s Alter Ego in Brooklyn

Toyi toyi fight music meets indie rock. i STILL regret missing this live set when they played in the county of Kings back in April, looks like a magical music moment. Now someone just needs to tell me what “zabalaza” means. [via the BLK JKS blog]

GO SEE:: speaking of loud guitars, the 4th annual afro-punk festival kicks off on july 4th weekend, with film, music, art and skating at BAM, and Fort Greene park nearby.

GO SEE: Santogold is a huge deal here at casa forota; currently debating whether to brave the crush of hipsters and catch her live when she performs at Central Park Summerstage on 7/20.

relatedly: Kenya Rock Film Festival Journal: blog spotlighting the small, embryonic rock music scene in kenya.

* with apologies to Greg Tate, from this must read essay on advancing age, YouTube and black rock.

Africa issue of French web magazine purpose

French online magazine purpose has a great Africa issue, which features the work of African photographers, not just photographs of Africa. There is some new (to me) studio work from Malick Sidibe (the man seems to have a bottomless archive) and vintage photography from Nigeria. Personal favorite: Sidi Sidibe’s “Modeles”, pictures of the work of tailors in Bamako, catalog style.

[via Exposure Compensation]

Photojournalist Olivier Jobard documented the 6-month epic trek of a 23-year old Cameroonian named Kingsley, who’s “mission” was to make it to Europe to make a better life for himself and his family. Interesting perspective in that Jobard and Kingsley travelled together; Jobard providing the “eyes” to complement Kingsley’s narration. Check out the boat that they used to try to cross the Atlantic and you know how determined (desperate?) Kingsley and his fellow migrants were to reach their destination, or more importantly leave their current hopeless state.

NOUS COEUR OBAMA: Article on the resurrection of black pride and negritude in France in the wake of the rise and rise of Barack Obama.

BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL: Provoked by the paucity of black models (and other models of color) on the runways and in the ads of haute couturiers, Italian Vogue has decided to feature only black models in their July issue. From the article:

Under its editor, Franca Sozzani, Italian Vogue has gained a reputation for being more about art and ideas than commerce. Ms. Sozzani also doesn’t mind controversy.

She said that, as an Italian, she has been intrigued by the American presidential race and Mr. Obama, which was one source of inspiration when she and Mr. Meisel began discussing, in February, the idea of an all-black issue. Also, she was aware of the lack of diversity on the runways in recent years and the debate it fueled last fall in New York, where Bethann Hardison, a former model who ran a successful agency, held two panel discussions on the topic.

Slide show of images from article here.

TRAINSPOTTING: spotted this Candace Feit image, especially the black borders with the dual “v” notches on the left frame that indicate they were taken with a Hasselblad medium format FILM camera. Yes, film is not dead yet, digital supremacy notwithstanding.

Detail of “Chemises” by Malick Sidibe

Malick Sidibe: ” … Sometimes I think that youth, dancing and joy are the only things that really matter in life. Don’t you think? After that, it’s all downhill. Those times were truly, truly joyful.”
Michelle Lamuniere: “Do you think any of that had to do with Mali winning its independence from France in 1960?”
Malick Sidibe: “Yes it did have to do with independence, but not necessarily colonial independence. There was another kind of independence, too. By 1956, Afro-Cuban music had hit Africa, along with European music, and that allowed young people to experience a new kind of freedom. Before, things were more traditional, it was impossible for a young man and a young woman to even go near each other, let alone speak to another. Girls weren’t allowed out of the house in skirts. No way! So they wore pagnes over their miniskirts. When they got to the party, they would take off their pagnes and dance. You have to understand what a big deal it was to be able to dance with a girl …. for us this freedom was a totally new thing, so we got really excited.”

Malick Sidibe interviewed for “Ready to Wear” (pp. 132 to 159), in Issue 88 (Vol 10 No. 4) of Transition.

SEE ALSO:

Screenshot of West African mysteries image series on African Images web site.

West African mysteries. [via african imagery]

Screenshot of Jurgen Schadeberg’s image series on African Images web site

Jurgen Schadeberg - South Africa in the 50’s [via african imagery]

A sampling of images by (largely) non-Africa born photographers. They are technically/aesthetically beautiful, and despite the outsider status of the photographers, they work hard to portray authenticity and dignity in their subjects (unlike the more ubiquitous “disaster porn” taken in disaster/war areas). It would interesting to see how different the images would look if they made by an insider with the same technical skill.

Screenshot of Julien Oppenheim’s image series on African Images web site

French photographer Julien Oppenheim [via African Imagery]

Screenshot of Claudio Rasano’s web site

Swiss photographer Claudio Rasano’s essays in South Africa including powertown, shades of skin, kakamas [via Conscientious]

Screen shot: school girl, Joakim Eskilden
Dane Joakim Eskildsen’s photo essay iChickenMoon

screenshot of denis chapoullie’s web site

Denis Chapoullie - South Africa, 98-99 [via African Imagery]

screenshot from Jim Chuchu’s site
PHOTOGRAPHY: jim chuchu {photography}. Photographer, animator, musician Jim Chuchu’s photography site. [via Ntwiga]

MUSIC: Iwinyo Piny: Just A Band. Music and visuals by aforementioned Jim Chuchu who is also a member of JAB. Band member Dan posts on kenyananimation blog their thinking process in creating the video. He also discusses how JAB had a rough time pitching this video to Kenyan TV stations: one Program Manager responded that they couldn’t air it as it would alienate their viewers since it was 5 years ahead of its time. You know you are doing something right when you get a response like that. [kenyanimation blog link via paula callas].

screenshot of Ian van Coller’s photo essay, “Interior Relations”
PHOTOGRAPHY: Ian van Coller: Interior Relations (portraits of black South African domestic workers taken in the homes of their white employers).

BOOKS: Chinua Achebe and the great African novel: it’s been 50 years since “Things Fall Apart” was published.

FILM: Tropa de Elite (The Elite Squad). High concept: “City of God from the police perspective, but with more brutality and violence and less nuance”. Director Jose Padilha meant to shoot this story as a follow up to his acclaimed documentary “Bus 174″, but chose to fictionalize it based on interviews and a book by 2 ex-BOPE cops. Raises some serious moral questions about how to combat out of control urban crime in townships/favelas/slums that have been criminally ignored by governments. Showed (not so) recently at Tribeca film festival, not sure when it will get wide release.

Creole. The result of the collision of Africa and Europe. In music, that collision has created what John Ryle called the soundtrack of modernity, which links the Swedish middle-aged man who loves Miles Davis with the Japanese youth who wants to be a b-boy. The result of that collision along with the almighty dollar now form part of the DNA of this thing we call global culture.

Is it the need to reconcile the technological and the human, tradition vs. modernity, civilization vs. primitivism, the seemingly mutually exclusive past and present that gives the culture created by africans all over the diaspora its vitality (soul) and its universality? Whatever, but as the sampling of the media i have been consuming in the last couple of weeks shows, the results are always interesting.

screenshot of opening scene of “Basquiat“

Q (”Interviewer”): Do you consider yourself a painter or a Black painter?
A (Jean-Michel Basquiat): Oh, I use a lot of colors, not just black …. It’s more a Creole, you know … what I mean by Creole is that … it’s a mix of Africa and Europe … you know in much the same way an African in Haiti speaks French.

cover of “BEYOND DESIRE” exhibition catalog

Inherent in all desire is a measure of fantasy, which guides our eye and forms or deforms our image of the ‘other’. Here fashion is a superb gauge. It is accessible, driven by unlimited fantasy, free from any form of politically correct thinking, decorative and superficial, yet, at the same time, it is deeply rooted in our cultural and social subconscious. BEYOND DESIRE shows how two cultures can each adopt the visual language of the other as their own and how their respective longings are projected through fashion and clothing in their fantasy image of this ‘other’.

BEYOND DESIRE: INTRODUCTION by Kaat Debo

gnarls barkley: going on
the styling of this video is a kind of “DRUM/soweto” meets “london working class/punk” aesthetic. the look was actually inspired by an, um, inspired fashion spread created by brooklyn photographer clayton cubitt and stylist rene garza called lagos calling
there is an non-pixelated/cleaner version of the video here.

jorge ben: ponta de lanca africano

Jorge Ben drew from the sambas of the hillside slums of Rio de Janeiro and American rhythm and blues to create an original style. He created the most organic fusion of North and South American forms of African music. This affinity is being demonstrated again by the enormous popularity of rap music in the slums, and only in the slums, of Rio. Jorge Ben was also a highly original lyricist who combined street language with images drawn from African and Christian mythology and esoteric literature.

Arto Lindsay in liner notes for “Beleza Tropical”.

Excerpt from “Secondhand (Pepe)” a documentary by Hanna Rose Shell & Vanessa Bertozzi which explores the meaning of the word “pepe” that is given to secondhand clothing worn by working class/poor Haitians. [insert similarities to Kenyan mitumba here].