Black Brighton

Published: 22 May 2018

Many people say that we sometimes go on journeys through our art, sometimes we express a journey we have, are on, or fantasies going through, in our art. I am sure that as you scroll down it will be screamingly obvious one trip I’m currently on that I am very excited about – which is probably why it is a featured in most of my creativity right now. It is my culture, my heritage, my colour, my ethnicity, my shade, whatever you want to call it, I am on an adventure and discovering what it is to be Black in these times we are moving in.

Realising my lack of social life with black people, a few years ago, I decided to change that, I yearned to have people around me I could share common ground with, from upbringing, to food, to hair products – hair products is a biggy- and everything I was yet to discover. With influences from work – the want to shoot more – and meeting certain people – specifically Liz Johnson-Artur – I decided to shoot all the friends I had, and the friends I had set out so adamantly to make in the last two/three years.

The first session was a complete success with an atmosphere that had an energy you could live off for day. I booked Tichborne Studio in the heart of Brighton one Saturday in April. Shooting 11 People for a two hour shoot on 7 rolls of film and it was a complete success. I had the Women arrive at 12 and the Men arrive at 1pm, all turned up on time and what I felt was especially rewarding, was the introducing new faces to new faces.

The Next shoot is set to be in June and so far I have 15 people confirmed!

Published: 29 Sep 2018

The response I had received – on social media and in person – after Black Brighton Session 1 excelled me to get the second session underway as soon as possible. Not only was I able to keep my costs low, but the first session also taught me how many people I could shoot in the time I could afford in studio. People were coming at me left, right and centre to not only be photographed, but be a part of this project, which was starting to feel like a movement in our City, especially for the minority that resided. This was especially felt by the people involved, so much so that Ned from the first session had passed on my project to the curators of Black History Month in Brighton, and since have been interested in me collaborating and contributing to the event (but that is a story for another post).

This session, I prepared to capture 20 people, I asked a few more than that so I had myself covered for anyone that might drop out last minute, which I feel is kind of inevitable in most situations like this, no matter how excited people are, some just might not be able to make it with such a small amount of time allotted. The last session I captured 10 people in a 2 hour session, and I felt I had too much time to take breaks and catch up, whilst really, I could do that when they were sat in front of the camera. It was a tactic I found useful in getting them to relax in front of the camera, but most importantly, forget it was there so they were themselves; I could capture their personality, which was important to me because this was not only a personal project of mine, but they all had such loud, vibrant personalities!

For this shoot I had branched out in asking not just people descent/from Africa and the Caribbean, but also from India, South America and the Middle-East. Now this was interesting! From some of these individuals I got questions and queries as I expected “but your project is Black Brighton, am I Black enough?”. And my reply was simple, when white people look at you, do you think they see you for being Lebanese? Or Brazilian? Or do you think they see you as a Black person?
(PLUS I only call it Black Brighton for its onomatopoeic aesthetic, I’m really photographing the Melanin minority of our city.)

What I enjoy the most about these shoots, is 1. getting so many people together and connected with one another, and 2 the stories we share with each other, the experiences you could only have from being a black person, and where you have always been the minority growing up, in school, socially, at work. You really think you are alone out there sometimes, and when you have someone to share such experiences with you across the board of life, its comforting to say the least.

The time had come and I had 2 hours, 10 rolls of HP5, one camera, one lense, one backdrop and 13 eager homies, ready to get their photo take. What was left was connections, collaborations, friendships and a strong sense of solidarity. I spoke to people who had different ideas on what it was to be Melanin, it has become a project that all who are involved, will take something away from it, questions answered, and feelings shared, growing from mind, body, spirit and hair!

END

I then went on to have my first solo exhibition with the Black Brighton whilst I was living in Chengdu, China in 2019. It was whispered that I may be the first black woman to exhibit in Chengdu…

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