Meet the photographer behind the ‘Black Is Beautiful’ movement

Back in November, the New York Times’ co-chief art critic Roberta Smith ignited controversy with a decade in review article originally entitled 'Black Art Has Its Moment, Finally.' Many were quick to point out what was wrong with the clumsy headline: black art did not suddenly come into being only in the past ten years. Rather, it has been having a moment, and one that has been historically ignored by major galleries and media outlets like the Times. 

Case in point is the work of photographer Kwame Brathwaite. An omnipresent documenter of 20th century black America, Brathwaite shot portraits of innumerable pop culture icons, from Michael Jackson to Muhammed Ali, and worked to popularize the concept that ‘black is beautiful’ through art and community activism. Now 82 years-old, his overdue first monograph, ‘Black Is Beautiful,’ was published last May by Aperture. ‘I think,’ says Kwame S. Brathwaite, the photographer’s son and archive director, ‘“especially in the fine art world, a lot of people are working backwards, saying ‘how did we miss this?”’   

It was a lot to miss: Brathwaite’s archive consists of over six decades of photographs, beginning in 1956 when he founded the African Jazz Arts Society and Studios (AJASS) with his brother, Elombe Brath. Only 18- or 19-years-old at the time, Brathwaite and his brother worked as AJASS to book and promote jazz concerts around Harlem and the Bronx. While the typical jazz shows of the time would incorporate burlesque acts, AJASS went a different route, and featured political satire and African drumming in their events to foster a community of black pride. Inspired by regular ‘Miss Natural Standard of Beauty’ pageants that would take place on Marcus Garvey Day (in which contestants would compete with natural hairstyles), the brothers then founded the Grandassa Models in 1962. Originally a group of eight, the Grandassa Models epitomized the message that ‘black is beautiful,’ wearing natural hairstyles and African-inspired clothing and jewelry that they’d make themselves. 

Brathwaite was there to photograph it all. His finger was so on the pulse of the Harlem cultural scene, his son explains, that he became known in the community as ‘the keeper of the images.’ While the monograph published last year only accounts for a small fraction of his archive, it perhaps signals the contemporary reappraisal of his work along with that of many of the artists of his milieu. 

In fact, Brathwaite’s work with the Grandassa Models has found such renewed appreciation that even Rihanna used it as inspiration for the imagery surrounding the debut of her Fenty fashion line. ‘She represents female empowerment to the nth power,’ says Kwame S. Brathwaite, ‘so it was very much in line with the core of his work: empowerment, giving people their space to be who they are.’

Join us at Soho Warehouse on February 7th, where Kwame S. Brathwaite will be joined by stylist and journalist Marcellas Reynolds (author of the book, ‘Supreme Models: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Fashion’) to discuss his father’s creative legacy and the ‘Black Is Beautiful’ movement. Here, Kwame S. Brathwaite answers a few questions about his father’s work and legacy:

‘Yeah, he's been shooting since 1956 and this is the first one. I'm also working on other projects that are getting more of his work out there. This is essentially the start of his work: how he kind of came about. How he became a photographer and started AJASS, as well as the Grandassa Models, and how the Black Is Beautiful movement was born.’ 

‘Exactly. 60 years of negatives. As far as our process goes, I come to New York, scan the negatives, then we go through them together, gathering any anecdotal information so we can organize them. There's obviously the beautiful artistic aspect of things, but there's also the fact that you're dealing with the politics of the era; you're dealing with the visual history of what was happening, both in the US and back in the continent of Africa, as far as this African liberation struggle that was the core of the foundation of the Black Is Beautiful movement. So it's really, really amazing to go through the process, and it's become a family project; my wife, my mom, my father and my children are all involved. It’s been really fun to all discover him in a new way.’

‘It's funny, because when you're a kid you only kind of understand what your parents do. You don't get too deep into it. When I was about 10 years old, he said to me, "We need to go to the Apollo. I need to drop some prints off for Stevie Wonder." So he, my sister and I walk into the Apollo, and see Debbie Allen choreographing a routine for the opening – it was the Motown 25th Anniversary. Then, we go back to the green room where Stevie Wonder is, and Stevie Wonder goes "Kwame! How are you?" He knew him by his voice! I didn't realize the extent of the depth and breadth of his work until I was much older.’