'I don't just want us to be seen, I want us to be hired.' Polly Irungu turned a list she'd been curating on Twitter into a Black Women Photographers, a platform for women and non-binary photographers looking for work and those seeking to hire.
Photograph: Tara PixleySo much of the photography we have seen of the lives of Black and brown people is in black and white, which to me can sometimes give this sense of fungible devastation or interchangeable experiences. By showing people and spaces in all their vibrant, living colors, they feel singular and more multifaceted. I also just love showing the world in all its vivid realness.
I was a dancer for many years, and early on in my career as a photographer, I began photographing and filming dance. It became the thing that kept me excited about making photos and kept me connected to dance. And when I was working with dancers of color, I just loved being able to capture moments of the Black body in ecstatic movement—that joy and freedom and strength and beauty.
My explorations on themes such as vanity and the function of the woman’s body, in addition to my own self-reflections, seek to examine the profoundly complex roles and expectations assigned to women by our culture and society—with a personal emphasis on Black women, in particular. These roles and expectations are not always aligned, nor reciprocated, and through my studies I have all too often observed women stripped down to a singular value dictated entirely by others.
Black people embody so much divine beauty—it is our minds, bodies, and souls that make us unique, and I simply aim to capture that in a visual sense. I’m showcasing the beauty in truth and daily Black life as a form of resistance, and this is inherently tied to our emotional experiences.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
For Black women, Jackson’s nomination is ‘magic on such a profound level’As Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court was announced, Black women felt a profound sense of pride and appreciation for the decades of struggle of Black women to be seen and heard in the nation’s most important institutions
Read more »
What a Black female Supreme Court justice means to 4 Black female lawyers in Montgomery CountyAs President Biden nominates first African American U.S. Supreme Court nominee, attorneys...
Read more »
Arlington Women, 20 Years Apart, Share Heart Attack ExperienceShonda Freeman is a 52-year old grandmother. Domonique Reagan is a 33-year old mother of five.
Read more »
'Women of the Movement' creator on how Mamie Till-Mobley woke up the world'Women Of the Movement' creator Marissa Jo Cerar discusses the ABC miniseries about Mamie Till-Mobley and the need for Black women behind the civil rights movement to 'get their flowers.'
Read more »
27 Women Shared The Shocking Things That Happened To Their Bodies After Childbirth'Breast tissue developed in my armpit. I call it 'the third boob.''
Read more »
Osborne, Thomas lead UCLA women past No. 12 ArizonaCharisma Osborne and IImar’I Thomas record double-doubles as the Bruins hand the host Wildcats their second straight loss, 64-46.
Read more »