Red Hook Labs is following British photographer Jamie Hawkesworth’s first-ever solo exhibition with an exciting new group show spotlighting six contemporary photographers from Africa and the African diaspora.
Created in partnership with African creative platform Nataal, New African Photography brings together established and emerging photographers to examine the diverse continent and its dynamic array of cultures. “The exhibition explores multiple themes that challenge accepted notions of belonging and identity; the everyday and the fantastical; the past and the future; the public and the private,” reads the exhibition’s release.
The show features black-and-white work by South African photographer Kristin-Lee Moolman — who shot Edun’s spring/summer 16 lookbook and OATH Studio’s celebration of 90s African androgyny — as well as images by French Senegalese Delphine Diaw Diallo. Vibrant colors arrive courtesy of Egyptian Owise Abuzaid — whose spontaneous street photography bears similarities to Daniel Arnold’s off-kilter humanism — and Guinean-Swiss photographer Namsa Leuba, who imagines African identity through Western eyes.
Nigerian photographer Lakin Ogunbanwo and South Sudanese photographer Atong Atem will also contribute identity-focused projects to the exhibition. Ogunbanwo will exhibit a series informed by classical portraiture, while Atem will show selections from her incredible set-driven portraits, which often feature third culture kids.
The show arrives at an opportune moment, when many are still mourning the recent death of Malick Sibdé — the iconic photographer whose early-60s portraits of Malian youth are an enduring, joyful document of a charismatic culture and its personal style. What better way to celebrate Sibdé’s impact on photography around the world than to get to know his legacy’s inheritors, the new generation of talent changing the face of African photography?
‘New African Photography’ is on view at Red Hook Labs from May 7 to May 15. More information here.
Credits
Text Emily Manning