Kwame Brathwaite: Black Is Beautiful

Known as the “keeper of the images,” Kwame Brathwaite deployed his photography
from the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s as an agent of social change. Born

in Brooklyn to a Caribbean American family and raised in the Bronx, Brathwaite

traces his artistic and political sensibilities to his youth. After seeing the horrific

images of Emmett Till published in Jet magazine in 1955, Brathwaite and his

brother Elombe Brath turned to art and political activism, absorbing the ideas of

the Jamaican-born activist Marcus Garvey, who promoted a Pan-Africanist vision

for black economic liberation and freedom.

This exhibition is organized by Aperture, New York and Kwame S. Brathwaite. It is curated by Kwame S. Brathwaite and Michael Famighetti.

The exhibition Black Is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite and the

accompanying Aperture publication are made possible, in part, by generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Photographic Arts Council Los Angeles.