The Photographic Journal

Gold Leaf

Essay 280 • Apr 20th 2018

The narrative of this fashion editorial is that of an alien brother and sister who were captured, taken from their home and brought to a place unfamiliar to them. This narrative plays into a motif of "stolen identity" and "survival". Through an afro-futuristic lens, both motifs connect to the black experience during the diaspora in regards to the middle passage.














 

Kennedi Carter is a Durham, North Carolina based photographer, whose work focuses on both fashion as well as the sociopolitical aspects of African American culture. She collaborates and photographs different creatives she encounters in her hometown. She interprets what it means to be ‘black’ in relation to fashion, creativity and in society as well. Historically, American pop culture has created a small binary in which blackness is allowed to function, especially in relation to fashion and media. She aims to reinvent the image of what it means to be creative, confident, and “Black” through her photographs. Kennedi explores the idea of blackness in relation to editorial photography through representation, showing that black culture is not only a spectacle that sparks inspiration, but one that is appropriated as well.

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