"Portraits: The Diaspora"
Description
In my portraits, I have sought to give the subjects the opportunity to assume an almost regal presence. Without the presence of text, each fold of skin, wrinkle, and hair coil acts, lives as a sentence. Central to my practice is having a conversation with the people I photograph. In documenting strangers, the goal is not to simply capture a beautiful shot; rather, the intent is to build a relationship with another human being and in the process, develop a deeper understanding of their personal history. For each person photographed, a new micro-history is cataloged.
Around the age of 10 years old, my family saw a family standing in a field of wilted dandelions and weeds in front of Sears. They had mustard yellow suitcases and a few boxes. We went home but I did not forget that family. I sat on my green carpet, pulled at the lint balls, saddened. Little did I know, that family standing in the field of dandelions would be my family years later. At the age of 12, my family became homeless.
In the process of moving around, many of our family photographs were lost and destroyed. While a few were salvaged, there are gapping holes in our family history; something was gone. From a young age, I grew fascinated with notions of memory and histories. Time travel emerged as a secret interest. I spent hours at garage sales and estate sales searching for pictures of Black families. I evolved from a collector of orphaned photographs to a photographer. Everything I do now is about building an archive- a memory base. Without memories we disappear.
In many ways, my art practice is born from a fear of forgetting. I constantly photograph and collect audio because I don’t know my family’s history. It’s gone. Maybe I can never find it, but I can help others build and preserve their history. Less concerned with grand narratives, my photography focuses on intimate micro-narratives--individuals, families, small towns, and subcultures. A historian at my core, I am never without my Nikon cameras, a few rolls of film, an audio recorder, and a notepad. Memory, and temporality are central to my work. To this end, while portraiture—is my main medium, I utilize and often merge various photographic approaches including documentary, found photography, rephotography, and collage to articulate my vision.
Biography
Kameelah Janan Rasheed (b. 1985) is a photographer, writer, and high school history teacher based in Brooklyn, New York. Born and raised in the small Bay Area town of East Palo Alto, California, Kameelah has She lived in Cape Town, South Africa as an exchange student, in Johannesburg as an Amy Biehl U.S. Fulbright Scholar, and Washington, DC as a Harry S Truman Scholar. Kameelah earned her B.A. in Public Policy-Africana Studies from Pomona College, and holds an Ed.M in Secondary Education from Stanford University. Kameelah's education also includes her role as a delegate and planning member for the UNESCO International Leadership Program. Her photography has been exhibited throughout California, New York, Washington, DC, and Johannesburg, South Africa. Her photography has been published in F-Stop and Make/Shift magazines, ITCH (South Africa), Harvard's Transitions: An International Review, Sokenele (Zimbabwe), Socialist Worker (U.K.), Liberator Magazine, Aaduna, and African Lens. Kameelah is a co-founder of Mambu Badu, a photography collective for emerging female photographers of African descent. Her writing, including interviews with artists Dread Scott, Akintola Hanif, and Jamel Shabazz have appeared in a number of publications including The Nation, Liberator Magazine, Pambazuka: Pan African Voices for Freedom and Justice, WireTap Magazine. Kameelah's essay, "Bad Lines of Grammar" is included in the book I Speak for Myself: American Women on Being Muslim. These are some of Kameelah's upcoming projects:- "Memory": Co-curating an exhibit with Mambu Badu featuring the inaugural cohort of our photography collective. - "2.5 Square Miles": Portraiture and audio project focused on my hometown of East Palo Alto, CA. East Palo Alto is a 2.5 square mile city with a population of about 30,000. An urban city with vestiges of a farming past, East Palo Alto during my upbringing was the nation's murder capital and the center of the crack epidemic. Now undergoing stages of gentrification, the city has taken on a new shape while dealing with an upsurge in violence. This digital portraiture and audio project will focus on 25 youth in East Palo Alto, many of whom I taught while living in California. Special attention will be paid to the Polynesian youth, a growing immigrant population in East Palo Alto. - "Ritual": Curating a cross-continental web-based magazine featuring the work of emerging US and South-African visual artists. - "Bodies": Self portraiture and text series centered on self-imaging that does not rely on the face as the indicator of identity. - Interview Series with Creatives: So far, I have interviewed Jamel Shabazz, Dread Scott, and Akintola Hanif. I am working on an experimental interview between two young points--one with roots in Somalia and the other with roots in Sudan as well as Egypt. I am lining up a few other interviews with some Brooklyn-based poets as well. For more information about Kameelah Rasheed, check out: www.kameelahr.com
