A celebration of Black creativity at London’s Saatchi Gallery

In London’s Saatchi Gallery, a new photography exhibition is celebrating Black creativity both in front of and behind the camera.

The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion focuses on Black portraiture, featuring stylists, models, make-up artists, and creative directors. It aims to reframe representation.

“The exhibition features contemporary images by Black designers who are working from Los Angeles to London to Lagos to New York,” says exhibition curator Antwaun Sargent. “The image-makers really sort of bring their own perspective and aesthetics. It’s about how the history and the culture have changed, and I think these image-makers are on the pulse of that change.”

A photograph by 29-year-old Mahaneela, a photographer and filmmaker from London, captures a South African DJ. Her mother comes from India, and her father is from Ghana.

“The image is called ‘In Ochre’ and I really hope that people just take a feeling of joy and happiness from it,” says Mahaneela. “I document Black and Brown people in the colour yellow, orange, and brown across the Ochre spectrum. I create my images that should feel joyful to kind of combat the other narratives that surround people from those communities.”

By: Damon Embling