ACTIVISM
Obadero named his studio Motif Photography after studying the concept in fine arts. Motif in art is essentially the repetition of patterns, a theme echoed in much of his work. He wants his studio to be a platform for newcomers that don’t have access to the right tools. PHOTO: SAMUEL OBADERO “There are photographers out there who aren’t Black, who can shoot Black,” says Chimwaso. “But I find that a lot of the time people don’t understand how to shoot them, especially with certain things like with our hair.” “There could be a piece that’s out of place, but because you’re not aware of that and you don’t know, you’re like, ‘Oh, okay. That’s probably natural — then the model gets it back and it’s like, ‘Ooh, my hair was not right. Why didn’t you correct it?’ But people don’t know,” she says. According to Obadero, the popular saying that ‘Black don’t crack’ gives the “notion of Black being hard and rugged.” “Black do crack. If you don’t manage Black properly, Black skin is a very, very sensitive skin. It’s a very sensitive skin in every level of it, even more on a feminine body,” he says. “Not to say softer or not to say it’s less, but the chemical melanin itself should be catered to properly.” Obadero addresses the difference in how Black men and Black women are shown on camera. “In all the digital mediums [and] media, the Black woman needs even stronger representation. Even in the storylines. How you cast them, how you film them, or photograph them or recut them needs more attention.” Similarly, Chimwaso suggests that the main difference in the portrayal of Black men and women is that “Black men are usually shown more as very angry and like thugs and I guess gangsters, whereas Black women — it’d be more so showing them in a provocative way than anything, the sexualization of Black women.” The history of photography has caused a lot of harm to the Black community, but it has also helped in many ways by telling the Black story. “Some of the biggest revolutions or the biggest change we’ve seen in the world started because of one picture, started because somebody was bold enough to go above and beyond to document a certain moment, which the rest of the world saw and stopped and paid attention,” says Obadero.
10 MAY/JUNE 2021
CALGARYJOURNAL.CA
“Photography is a tool that we cannot put value on. It has shed light to the deepest of darkness,” he says. Obdareo recalls watching a documentary on the Maasai people, an ethnic group in Kenya and Tanzania, taking notice that they used a photograph of a boy with flies in and around his mouth. “I was like, of course — they would definitely take a picture of a Black young boy with flies in his mouth,” he says. “I remember the early days of the United Nations adverts of sending money to Africa, because somebody is hungry, there will always be some Black young boy with flies in his mouth.” Images like these he says can shape people’s perspective on Africa and “Afrocentric missions” in a way that isn’t necessarily true. He adds, “We all know a picture says a thousand words, what am I saying? A picture says a billion words — so somebody [who’s] only window to Africa is that photo will think that Africa is a place full of kids that cannot chase flies out of their mouth.” “But there is the other side,” he says. “The beauty of it too, that doesn’t become as mainstream.” Going forward, Obadero suggests to creatives to “take a second to reconsider, knowing fully well that a picture or a video or a one-second clip says a billion words, how will this image project or tell the story of these people — how does it reflect on them?” That reflection is something that Obadero takes seriously. “I’m very emotional about this because it’s a culture that I belong to, a community that I represent, and I have seen so much damage done because of a photo.” The damage includes women, who’ve had their stories told “by people who don’t even understand the very first things about them and the world misconstrues this based on the lens of who told their story.” “[It’s] not usually joy, happiness or even hiking,” says Chimwaso on the images used to represent the Black community. “Like Black people, we hike. But if you were to look for even stock images of someone hiking you wouldn’t see any Black people.” “That’s why there’s this Instagram called Black Travel Feed,” she adds. “It basically just highlights Black people travelling — cause we do all these normal things as well.” She also notes how photography has helped the Black community “realize that we need better representation of ourselves.”
“I think that’s why I’m finding a lot of Black photographers tend to, especially in the States, focus a lot more on photographing Black people to better represent us and show we are not these people that the media has been sharing and showing all these years,” she says. “We’re starting to use our voices again and get our voices back.” Photography has come a long way since the 1960s, but there is still a long way to go, and that progress can start with the photographer.
“Some of the biggest revolutions or the biggest change we’ve seen in the world started because of one picture, started because somebody was bold enough to go above and beyond to document a certain moment...” > Shenda Chimwaso “Educate yourself by going on YouTube,” says Chimwaso. “There are many Black photographers who have YouTube channels who also teach you how to edit and shoot for Black people.” “The onus lies on us, all stakeholders, to do better,” says Obadero. “We must take a second to see what things we’ve left unknowingly behind, then we should catch up on those things.” It’s a conversation that Obadero says needs to keep happening in order for there to be a solution. “Every negative story I see out there reminds me of the role that I play [to] counterbalance whatever story that I find to be negative until a different story of my people, of my culture, of my colour [is] put out there on the table.”
For photography to be more racially inclusive, Samuel Obadero says the responsibility lies with both the users and the producers of camera technology. PHOTO: SAMUEL OBADERO
