We are deeply saddened by the passing of Kwame Brathwaite, a pioneering activist and photographer whose work had a profound impact on the “Black is Beautiful” movement. Brathwaite, Jr, his son, announced the news on Instagram, describing his father as the patriarch of their family and his personal hero.
In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in Brathwaite’s work, with curators, historians, and collectors alike recognizing his contribution to the aesthetics of the movement. In 2019, his first major institutional retrospective, organized by the Aperture Foundation, debuted at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles and subsequently toured the country.
Born in 1938 to Barbadian immigrants, Brathwaite grew up in New York, specifically in Harlem and the South Bronx. His passion for photography was ignited by two significant moments in his life. The first was the encounter with David Jackson’s famous photograph of Emmett Till, which deeply affected him. The second was when he saw a photographer capturing images in a dark jazz club without a flash, inspiring him to explore the possibilities of working with limited light.
Equipped with a Hasselblad medium-format camera, Brathwaite developed a unique style that incorporated the visual narrative of limited light and utilized a special darkroom technique to enhance the representation of black skin in his photographs. He documented jazz legends, including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk, capturing the essence and mood of their performances.
In the early 1960s, Brathwaite and his organization, the African Jazz Arts Society and Studios (AJASS), actively challenged Eurocentric beauty standards. They created the concept of the Grandassa Models, young black women whose features were celebrated and accentuated in Brathwaite’s photographs. The group organized fashion shows, with the first one called “Naturally ’62” held in Harlem. Brathwaite met his wife Sikolo, a Grandassa Model, during this time and they remained married until his passing.
In the 1970s, Brathwaite shifted his focus from jazz to other popular forms of black music. He documented the Jackson Five’s tour in Africa in 1974 and photographed iconic moments such as the “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Throughout his career, Brathwaite continued to expand his photography while remaining devoted to the “Black is Beautiful” ethos. As recently as 2018, he was commissioned to photograph well-known figures for publications like The New Yorker. His work speaks volumes about the power and beauty of black culture and has left a lasting impact on the art world.
We are excited to see Brathwaite’s retrospective travel to the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, and an ongoing exhibition, titled “Kwame Brathwaite: Things Well Worth Waiting For,” at the Art Institute of Chicago.
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