When I was younger, much much younger and my parents used to ask me what I wanted to become, I would always answer journalist. I would change my mind every couple of years but the answer would always go back to being a journalist. As I got older and I got my first camera from my parents, I decided that if I could travel the world and be a photojournalist, then my life would be set.
There are two things that have always sparked a little passion inside me, one is books and the other is photography. It wasn’t till my late teens and early twenties however that my focus turned to African photographers. Up to that point for me, the photographic gaze on Africa and its nations and people had always been at the direction of non-Africans. I didn’t even question it as a teenager.
Malick Sidibé is a Malian photographer known largely for his extensive documentation of the lives of young people living in Mali during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Going through his collection you sense a young generation full of vibrancy and optimism.
Sidibé was awarded the Venice Biennale‘s Golden Lion for lifetime achievement award in 2007, this was the first time it had been presented to a photographer of any kind. Sidibé still works in his studio in Bamako, Mali. I hope to get the chance to visit it one day or at least witness an exhibition of works here in Australia.
Fast forward to 2012 and my eyes have been drawn to a young Brooklyn based photographer of Equatorial Guinea descent by the name of J Quazi King. Quazi, a self taught photographer has a depth and urgency to his work that makes you unable to look away. One of Quazi‘s focus is documenting the lives of emerging and talented Africans living outside of Africa with a freshness and style that is bold, colourful and memorable.
Like Sidibé, Quazi has the striking ability and talent of capturing an emerging African diaspora on the cusp of a self awareness that is uniquely Afropolitan. In a recent interview with African Digital Art, Quazi noted
“It’s about Africans of all walks of life, gender, and different professional disciplines, some emerging and others established in their respectable fields of work. What brings these Africans together for this project in my opinion is their belief that Africa is not a charity case and the work they do to alter this outlook of Africa,”
SOURCE: QUAZZI MOTTO on WAX, ARTNET.COM