A few weeks ago, an eighty-year-old Harlem photographer Kwame
Brathwait arrived at moma PS1, in Queens, to wear fashionable three-piece
suit and shiny shoes. “This is a very special day,” he whispered.
He was dressed to shoot your first order more than two
decades, a portrait of the artist Joanna Petit-Frere at New
The spring issue Yorker Style.
Petit-Frere, who was known for creating complex sculptural hair pieces
already spotted the likes of Beyonce, Solange, and Janelle
Monet was at the Museum to prepare for the staging of “hair wars.” In
the show is a modern incarnation of hair stylists showcase, founded in
1985 Detroit DJ. and party promoter David Humphries, who
gained an international cult. For her photo shoot with
Brathwait, Petit-Frere will wear the individual pieces that she
will be modeling in the exhibition, works that draw from costuming,
architecture and its origin Haiti twist hair styles on
women’s futuristic vision.
“Untitled” (Self Portrait), 1964.
Photo Kwame buses / courtesy Philip Martin Gallery
The inspiration behind the pair, Petit-Frere and buses was his
roots in another story in the style of the show. In January 1962 in a jazz club
125th street in Harlem, Brathwait, together with his brother Elombe
Brath, staged the first “natural”, a contest where all-black
models that, in their holiday Afrocentric dress and natural hair
the styles embodied the pan-African movement, which was revived on the wave
from the civil rights movement. Declaration, conformable to that night in
Harlem, the “Black is Beautiful” has since become synonymous as
“Natural” shows and vivid portraits Brathwait of black women.
“Untitled” (models Grandassa, Gallery Merton Simpson), gr. 1967.
Photo Kwame buses / courtesy Philip Martin Gallery
To prepare for a photo session with Petit-Frere, son Brathwaite Kwame, Jr.
worked with the photo Department of “the new Yorker” to decipher technical
aspects of the previous work of his father. In the nineteen sixties buses
portraits, skin and hair models Grandassa has a tactile
quality, creates a soft glowing light, no shadows, and
the palette of earth and jewel tones.
“Untitled” (Sikolo), 1968.
Photo Kwame buses / courtesy Philip Martin Gallery
“Untitled” (Noms with earrings), 1964.
Photo Kwame buses / courtesy Philip Martin Gallery
“Untitled” (Sikolo with Carolee designs Prince), 1968.
Photo Kwame buses / courtesy Philip Martin Gallery
Petit-Frere, who told me that Brathwait in her workspace
impressive, shifted between formal and playful poses. Brathwait and
jazz (in 1956, he founded the African jazz-Art society and
Studio), was asked to turn Off the music, and miles Davis’s “blue”
filled the room. After the completion of the roll of film, Brathwait villages
and was playing the piano the air with his eyes closed. When he got back up and
I looked through the viewfinder of a hasselblad 503CW camera, he seemed
spellbound what was in it.
The cooperation was to marry two artistic visions, Association
Petit-Frere futuristic creations from the pioneering work of buses on
from the previous decade. As Petit-Frere put it, “black is beautiful . . . but
now let’s go deeper.”
Kwame Brathwaite behind the scenes photo shoot for new York.
Sourse: newyorker.com
