NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — The New York Historical Society is hosting an exhibit showcasing the work of photographer Kwame Brathwaite, an artist who documented Black music and politics in New York City in the 50s and 60s and who helped popularize the “Black is Beautiful” movement.
“Black is Beautiful: the Photography of Kwame Brathwaite” will open on Friday and run through mid January.
This exhibition — the first dedicated to Brathwaite's remarkable career — places the renowned photographer as a central figure of the second-wave Harlem Renaissance.
Brathwaite was born to two Caribbean immigrants in Brooklyn and raised in the Bronx and Harlem.
His son, Kwame Brathwaite Jr., told 1010 WINS’ Sharon Barnes-Waters his father started shooting jazz shows he would host with his brother Elombe after he got a camera for high school graduation.
“He wanted to be the person that made sure that we had a historical document that represented what was happening,” said Brathwaite Jr. “He wanted to show what was happening both within their political aspirations but also outside of those political aspirations with the musicians of that time.”
As his photography career took off, Brathwaite’s art combined music and fashion photography with political activism.
He explored Marcus Garvey’s theories of Pan-Africanism in his work and sought to create new beauty standards that celebrated Blackness.
To this end, he was part of and co-founded the African Jazz-Art Society & Studios, which started the Grandassa Models, a locally cast modeling troupe who gave annual fashion shows at Harlem’s Apollo Theater.
Organized by Aperture, New York, the new exhibit at the New York Historical Society features 40 portraits and behind-the-scenes photographs from Harlem’s music and art scene in the 50s and 60s.
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