WHAT INSPIRED THIS SHOOT?

In college, my “Black Women in Film” professor, opened up the door to many films that were once black-listed in the United States. This gave me access to art and black history that I would’ve never discovered otherwise. Even if found on my own, I would have had little to no understanding of these films because of their complexity. One of those films was, Daughters of The Dust which is now available on Netflix. The film cleverly discusses the social and spiritual dynamic of three generations of Gullah ‘Geechee’ women living on Saint Helena Island, as they prepare for their travel North to the mainland. I would advise anyone to watch this film if you enjoy films that challenge your way of thinking.

I was heavily inspired by the 1991 film and specifically, the character Yellow Mary, played by actress Barbara O. Jones. I always found the women in the film beautiful and when given the opportunity, I jumped to recreate their natural look. Originally, my model had one braid straight to the back similar to actress, Alva Rogers’ character, Eula Peazent but, nature had it’s way. Her hair turned into a ‘twist out’ and then to a wavy fro in no time. This blessing in disguise gave us the look you see in the image to the left and the look of Yellow Mary. My model was a little nervous about how the images were turning out due to her hair but, when I showed her the images she fell in love! We truly created art that day and I’m grateful to have worked with her.

The character Nana Peazant played by actress, Cora Lee Day also inspired much of the symbolism seen throughout the Daughters of The Dust spreads. As the matriarch, Nana took on the responsibility of maintaining the “old” ways that majority of her grand children were eager to leave behind. Enticed by the North’s promotion of better opportunity, they were too willing to give up their souls for Nana’s liking. Nana knew that moving North would encourage assimilation; therefore promoting the abandonment of their history, so she pushed back. Her firm demeanor and repetitive story telling left her isolated and over time earned her the titles crazy and delusional. But, Nana could care less because she understood it was her duty to pass on the ways of her ancestors who were brought there, from the motherland. So, like Yellow Mary, I thought it would be imperative to incorporate the essence of the most important character into these spreads. At first, I couldn’t think of an artistic way to do this but, after hours of research, I chose to use Adrinkra. Adrinkra is an old pictographic language discovered in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. This was perfect because Ghana as well as other Coastal regions on the continent of Africa are known for their Slave Castles (the ultimate stop) which were used during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. So, ancestors of those Ghanian’s brought to the America’s would have lost majority of their culture trying to learn and assimilate to European culture. This history paralleled the film’s message, which is why I decided to go with these symbols.

Beautiful, beautiful woman of color. Intriguing and strong. Butter peacan brown, mocha and chocolate. As dark as the night and as bright as the dawn.

Excerpt from - “Woman of Colour”

DONO

DONO

The dono or drum means praise and is a symbol found in the pictographic language of the Ghanian Adinkra people. It primarily symbolizes music, dance and worship and is one of the few African traditions that has managed to survive. Today, we see this in most Black churches. Despite slavery and the constant attempt of the world to strip away African ancient knowledge,-

the tradition of communication and expression through movement has prevailed. One of the many talents attributed to the black community has been the ability to create rhthym and blues (music). We have our ancesters to thank for that. It goes to show that although the fruit may be picked from the tree, the seed that it produces will always be connected to it’s roots.

The Lightroom Preset used in this photo is called “Gullah”. This preset can be found in my new Preset Travel Pack. I thought that it would be important to have a preset specifically for black woman, being that there are very little presets online for them. This preset emphasizes brown tones and gives them a golden look. It also desaturates the green tones in an image allowing for the subject to be the most vibrant thing in the image, even if infront of a lot of greenery. There is grain added to these photos but, you can overlay a white camera dust .png via Photoshop. To purchase this preset, don’t hesitate to click on the link below.