From Bulgaria to Brixton: Liz Johnson Artur’s Debut Photobook Reflects Blackness Across Borders.Span
From Bulgaria to Brixton: Liz Johnson Artur’s Debut Photobook Reflects Blackness Across Borders.Spanning three decades of work, displaying both black and white and colour portraiture, this visual retrospective is the first monograph of Russian-Ghanaian photographer Liz Johnson Artur. Born in Bulgaria to a Russian mother and Ghanaian father, Artur grew up in Russia and Germany, often finding herself in environments where black people were rare. An upbringing plagued with a constant search for self spurred by her racial identity, Artur describes her work and the motivation behind it as a form of discovery and exploration:“The only way for me to understand…why I took all these pictures…I was hungry…but I didn’t know…that I was…it’s like when you start eating…you realize how hungry you are…and when it came down to pictures…I now realize…how hungry I was.”(Self-portrait, Liz Johnson Artur)Self-titled, the eponymous book features photos from areas that represent a diverse cross-section of Artur’s life - from the streets of South London, to parts of Russia, Europe, and the United States, Congo and other countries in Africa, as well as The West Indie. Her photographs represent subjects from all walks of life, from school children to artists, people on the streets to universally recognized musicians, reflections of Artur’s interactions and engagement with individuals representing a myriad of experiences of black people from all walks of life. Liz Johnson Artur has worked for everyone from iD, Sunday Times, Fader, Observer magazine, Dazed & Confused, and the Face, Artur’s book is the photographer’s self-curated collection of her career’s output. No.12 bus, London, 1998West London, 1999Peckham, 1999Lewisham, 1997Find the book here.Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Soundcloud | Mixcloud -- source link
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