a friend of mine once told me she rarely felt beautiful growing up because of her skin color. She was dark skinned and unfortunately in this imperfect world there exists something called colorism among black people where lighter complexion is considered more beautiful than dark skinned people and that really can destroy someones self esteem especially that of young women and girls so i decided to change that narrative and show people that everyone is beautiful and that diversity is what adds to the beauty.
I was moved when I realised,through books, magazines and upon inquisitive research, that people who looked like me had undertook great career paths I was dreaming of. my reality wasn't questioned anymore, because my dreams had been validated through the legacy that I too CAN. I mostly recommend talents who are thriving in their fields to aid they might need.
Children learn by picking up what is presented to them by society. The influence on our society in certain aspects by Westernization has in turn polluted our children. We forget what matters, we have forgotten the true meaning of education, skillset, beauty, and we are losing our touch with nature and our traditions. We are living by other people's philosophies. Living in Turkey I see how mixed emotions and curious the locals are towards our kind. If we want our children and their children to be conscious then Representation matters. Represent who you truly are and use diversity to do that.
From a very young age I was bothered about the wrong perception of Africa. I decided to use my phography skills to capture Africans and african landscape and landmarks in a way that i feel represent us best. To showcase our beauty, faces , who and where we are in an authentic way. I also work with Pichastock which stood for the same cause to advance the same objective to the mainstream world.
I have always been fascinated about the 'Black Star' in the Ghanaian national flag which is translated to represent 'Hope for Africa' because it gave me the opportunity to reprogram my mind and explore the absolutely unique possibility of a star being black. Think about it for a second; how does a black star shine? Is that even possible? (perhaps is a question for a limited or racially-biased conditioned mind). I believe that one day we will wake up to the realization that the colour of darkness is not black and the colour of light is not white, and we will be ashamed of the wide gaps we have created in society because of the needless negativity that has been carefully and systematically curated and associated over time with my #Black and #African race.
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