Kwame Brathwaite, Visionary Photographer Who Defined 'Black Is Beautiful,' Dies at 85

United States - Ekhbary News Agency

Kwame Brathwaite, Visionary Photographer Who Defined 'Black Is Beautiful,' Dies at 85

Kwame Brathwaite, the pioneering activist and photographer whose iconic work profoundly shaped the aesthetics and philosophy of the “Black Is Beautiful” movement of the 1960s and beyond, died on April 1, at the age of 85. His passing marks the end of an era for a visual revolutionary whose lens consistently championed Black pride, self-acceptance, and a radical reimagining of beauty standards.

The news of his death was shared by his son, Kwame Brathwaite, Jr., through a poignant Instagram post. “I am deeply saddened to share that my Baba, the patriarch of our family, our rock and my hero has transitioned,” the announcement read, reflecting the profound personal loss while acknowledging his father's monumental public impact. Brathwaite's singular vision, which merged activism with art, has garnered renewed interest in recent years from curators, historians, and collectors, cementing his place as a crucial figure in American cultural history.

Born in 1938 to Barbadian immigrants in what he affectionately termed “the People’s Republic of Brooklyn,” New York, Brathwaite’s early life was marked by a relocation to Harlem and later the South Bronx. His journey into photography was sparked by two pivotal moments. The first, in August 1955, was the haunting encounter with David Jackson’s stark photograph of a brutalized Emmett Till in his open casket – an image that seared into the national consciousness and underscored the brutal realities of racial injustice. The second, a year later, occurred after he co-founded the African Jazz Arts Society and Studios (AJASS) with his brother Elombe. Witnessing a photographer capture images in a dimly lit jazz club without a flash ignited Brathwaite’s imagination, revealing the artistic possibilities of available light.

This early inspiration led Brathwaite to master his craft, using a Hasselblad medium-format camera to work with limited light, thereby enhancing the visual narrative and mood of his subjects. Crucially, he developed a darkroom technique in his Harlem apartment that enriched and deepened the portrayal of Black skin, counteracting the prevailing photographic norms that often failed to adequately capture its nuances. His early career saw him photographing a pantheon of jazz legends throughout the 1950s and '60s, including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk, capturing the raw emotion and energy of their performances. “You want to get the feeling, the mood that you’re experiencing when they’re playing,” Brathwaite articulated in a 2017 interview with Aperture Magazine, underscoring his commitment to authenticity.

By the early 1960s, Brathwaite, alongside AJASS, began to harness photography as a powerful tool for social change. They consciously pushed back against the pervasive whitewashed and Eurocentric beauty standards that dominated media and society. This collective effort culminated in the conceptualization of the Grandassa Models – a group of young Black women whom Brathwaite photographed, celebrating and accentuating their natural features, hairstyles, and authentic beauty. These images were not merely portraits; they were affirmations of identity and radical statements against assimilation.

In 1962, AJASS organized “Naturally ’62,” a groundbreaking fashion show held at Harlem’s Purple Manor. This event, featuring the Grandassa Models, became a regular fixture until 1992, showcasing natural Black beauty and fashion as a form of cultural resistance and empowerment. Brathwaite's personal life also intertwined with this movement; in 1966, he married Sikolo, a Grandassa Model he had met the previous year, solidifying a partnership that lasted the rest of his life. His first major institutional retrospective, organized by the Aperture Foundation, debuted in 2019 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, touring the country and bringing his crucial contributions to a wider audience.

As the 1970s dawned, Brathwaite's lens expanded beyond jazz to other forms of popular Black music and culture. In 1974, he documented the Jackson Five’s tour in Africa and captured the historic “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. His commissions during this vibrant era included photographing icons like Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, and Bob Marley, further cementing his role as a chronicler of Black artistic excellence and cultural movements. Kwame Brathwaite's legacy is not just in the images he created, but in the profound shift in consciousness he helped ignite – a lasting testament to the power of photography as a vehicle for social justice and self-love.

Ekhbary News Agency