The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

This rising African photographer pushes viewers to rethink black bodies in her work

In her portraits, Yagazie Emezi’s seeks to promote new narratives

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September 24, 2018 at 1:23 p.m. EDT

Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Olivier Laurent.

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Yagazie Emezi was tired. A few years ago, the Nigerian native moved to Lagos. She was searching for a job and running out of money.

In those days, she was taking photographs on her phone constantly to document her new surroundings.

“Capturing my new environment had become second nature, and although I had often been prodded in the direction of photography since my move to Lagos, I had not followed through, mainly because I had no idea where to start … until I was down to my last few pennies.”

In 2015, she was hired to shoot backstage at the Lagos Fashion Week.

“From there, it was from one referral to another and the work and opportunities carried,” she said.

Since those early days, Emezi’s work has been published in Vogue, Time and the New York Times, and has been recognized with a Getty Images Creative Bursary Award.

Photography can be used to perpetuate stereotypical images of black people. I decided to question that.

A focus on bodies — and how we interpret them

In her personal projects, Emezi gravitates toward portraiture.

“When I started, the majority of my images were taken with a Blackberry and an iPhone 4, so pointing my lens at someone often meant getting as close as possible,” she told In Sight. “In Nigeria as with a lot of other places, you really can’t do that without explaining yourself first. I did a lot of portraiture because of this and I still do. I had done a bit of street photography in Lagos, but I personally preferred the intimacy of acknowledging and being acknowledged directly by others.”

In “The Beauties of West Point,” Emezi photographs women who don’t aspire to conform to beauty standards, instead choosing to wear what they love in a bid to reclaim their images against enforced global standards. That concept is echoed in the Nigerian photographer’s ongoing series “Process of Re-Learning Bodies,” in which she examines how we are affected by and react to our own scarred bodies.

Her latest project, “Consumption of the Black Model,” seeks to reclaim black bodies.

“Often times, intentionally or unintentionally, the black body becomes a canvas to project fetishized narratives,” she wrote on her website. “With our minds and our cameras, we are capable of not just documenting the people, environments and events around us; we are also capable of creating stories using people to push a narrative in spaces where we don’t often see ourselves represented.”

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Getting recognition in the industry

“I believe that getting noticed on a global scale is dependent on certain industry gatekeepers and the stories (and their storytellers) they deem as valuable enough to elevate, outside of the very necessary relevance of certain stories,” she said.

During her early years in photography, Emezi was fortunate, she said, to be surrounded by a small but strong network of photographers, writers and other creatives “that in one way or another have contributed to ensuring my ability to keep working.” She added that having ownership of her own personal platform also helped her amplify her narratives. “Social media and technology has played a very strong role for a lot of artists of color, including myself, to create spaces where people can view more diverse stories.”

But that doesn’t absolve the role gatekeepers, such as The Washington Post, play in crafting the narrative. “A lot of ‘othering’ still takes place,” Emezi said. “There are those with access and those without. And with that comes the idea that those without remain ignorant to how the industry works and how it can be made better.”

The result is that while international platforms share and give access to a diverse network of underrepresented photographers, “they remain the fixed authority, with little exchange,” she said. “They give, yes, but do they also receive? Does being a minority warrant not being an authority in the work? I believe that a lot more minds in our industry need to be expanded in order for us to not only see more works represented, but to also truly listen to these voices and what they have to say about the photography spaces they are occupying.”