Local and luxury brands are forging a new kind of relationship with African photographers that extends far beyond shooting campaigns.
By Ezreen Benissan
Last month, Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing collaborated with Ghanaian visual artist and photographer Prince Gyasi for his first full menswear show since the pandemic. As part of the collaboration, some of Gyasi’s images were printed onto the brand’s Autumn/Winter 2024 ready-to-wear and accessories.
“I never thought I’d have the opportunity to express myself in that way,” Gyasi says.
Gyasi is part of a new wave of African creatives shaping luxury fashion in and around the continent, which includes South Africa's Trevor Stuurman, Nigeria’s Stephen Tayo, Kenya’s Barbara Minishi, British-Ghanaian Campbell Addy and Senegal’s Malick Bodian. From collaborations to campaigns, this new generation is working with local brands as well as major luxury houses to broaden people’s perception of African fashion, tap into the diaspora and allow brands to authentically draw inspiration from the continent without causing offence.
After previously collaborating with Balmain for its autumn 2022 campaign, Gyasi saw an opportunity to deepen his relationship with the fashion house beyond shooting content. It was unknown how this second collaboration would manifest, but Gyasi was keen to partner with Balmain and create “wearable art” — what that looked like exactly, he wasn’t initially sure. “I was like if I’m ever going to work with this brand again, I don’t want to just do campaigns because that is what’s expected of me. I wanted to go into fashion, like wearable art. I wanted to create collectibles,” he says.
Gyasi was heavily involved in the making of this collection for Balmain, Rousteing tells Vogue Business. “We truly created these pieces together. From day one when we were sketching, to the day of the show. He was there to witness his work come to life and see how we were honouring his art,” he says. “He is as much a part of this collection as me.”
The photographer works closely with brands to ensure that their work and messages are portrayed accurately. “My relationship with brands is mostly about me bringing my culture and my experience in the art world into fashion,” explains Gyasi. “It’s me collaborating with them and making sure that what they want to achieve is clear and we’re able to create things that people can actually consume and keep.”
A change in narrative
This latest wave of African photographers is working to challenge perceptions of the continent. For a long while, images circulating mainstream media all purported the same rhetoric: poverty. Just as African fashion designers set out to change the narrative around the continent’s fashion industry, photographers are embarking on a similar quest. This includes highlighting the nuances of Africa’s rich history, vibrant youth culture and fashion scene.
“This conversation boils down to inclusivity and diversity, which can be a challenge,” says Nigerian photographer Tayo. He argues that some diversity and inclusion efforts rarely go beyond being just that — an announcement or acknowledgement of a lack of diversity within the creative field. Similarly to African fashion designers, photographers feel like their work is often pigeonholed or expected to uphold colonial ideologies. It’s only through recent events that the international market is becoming familiar with the dynamism and nuances of African fashion photography, showcasing everything from luxury fashion in Côte d’Ivoire to Kenya’s growing beauty sector.
From the New Black Vanguard at the Saatchi Gallery in 2022 to the Contemporary African Photography exhibition currently showcasing at London’s Tate, demand is growing for African fine art photography. This is driven, in part, by the global proliferation of Africa’s creative industries, particularly with music genres such as Afrobeats and Amapiano making international headlines. Africa’s cultural and creative scene is a strategic driver of economic growth, according to a 2023 Unesco report.
There was often a “question mark” around how brands could work on the continent. “The view of fashion and style was often skewed in one way: very colourful and tribal, which is true, we’re very blessed on the continent to live in such a multi-coloured, technicolour world,” says Addy. “However, a lot of my work is about showcasing differences.” Over the past 12 months, Addy says he’s made a conscious decision to do shoots that he could always do in the West, in Ghana. “The unconscious bias of the Western creative is that one specific type of creative can come out of Ghana or Africa,” he says. “In my exploration of photography, and making sure it’s still a high standard of luxury, is to show people we can do it if not better.” The standard of work he has been able to produce in Ghana has been “shocking” to some people, he says.
“When collaborators, commissioners or brands see my work they won’t necessarily say ‘Oh, that’s Africa’ straight away,” he says. “I want them to go ‘that’s a beautiful image’ and then hit them with the ‘Oh, by the way, that’s Ghana’,” he says. “We all know how the image of Africa has been told over the centuries and we haven’t really been able to have our own control over the image.”
Attracting international attention
Increasingly, international publications are shining a light on Africa’s rich culture and photography. Titles such as Vogue and i-D have shot magazine covers in Africa. In 2022 American Vogue tapped photographer Bodian to shoot its November cover starring British actress Michaela Coel in Ghana. The year prior, i-D worked with Dominican-American photographer Luis Alberto Rodriguez to shoot supermodel Naomi Campbell in Kenya. More recently, the Puig-owned cult perfume brand Byredo, launched a limited-edition magazine inspired by its Bal d’Afrique fragrance, which centres around stories on African identity, fashion, music and culture. “It’s a tribute to Africa today,” Byredo founder and creative director Ben Gorham said in a statement. “This magazine is a snapshot of a moment, and like any snapshot, it’s subjective, and leaves far more out of frame than it shows.”
Dazed is another magazine rewriting the playbook. A number of its covers and editorials have been shot in Africa, in spots such as Senegal and Nigeria.
“We want Africa to be visible in a multitude of ways and we like to think that our covers contribute to the many visions of Africa we see in the media,” says Kacion Mayers, editorial director of Dazed. “Our editor-in-chief was born and raised there [in West Africa, specifically Sierra Leone] so naturally, a lot of our references, collaborators and ideas are shaped by a vision crafted on the continent.” Dazed has tapped photographers including Addy and Bodian to shoot some of its covers.
For Addy, platforms like Dazed play a vital role in moving the conversation forward. “It allows people in the status quo to digest it more… It’s no longer exotic to be shooting in an African country. Seeing different types of Africans is imperative because [that’s how you] get the luxury market moving.” It also allows the next generation to travel and unlock opportunities on and off the continent. Although without a British or international passport, talented creatives across the region can’t afford the same opportunities, he says. For African photographers to get a tourist visa is challenging, he says, but as more publications like Dazed or Vogue work with local creatives, it can have a significant impact on legislation as well as overall attitudes towards Africa’s creative sector.
For Dazed editor-in-chief Ib Kamara, working with local talent is a natural alliance. “It’s how I stay relevant in my own work and it’s how Dazed remains a cultural and community-based 360 storytelling platform,” he says. This exchange is mutually beneficial, Kamara adds. “Discovering new talent is a double win as it allows both parties to learn from each other — sharing experiences and ideas while maintaining authenticity.”
Brands are also growing more aware of what Africa has to offer. In 2021, British heritage brand Burberry partnered with Manju Journal, an African art and culture platform, to release a photo series titled “Together and One”, as part of Black History Month. For founder Richmond Orlando Mensah, the aim was to “elevate the beautiful things I was seeing around me in terms of fashion, culture and art”, he says, noting that this collaboration came off the back of a 2020 tie-up with Gucci. “We wanted to collaborate with brands who are looking to broaden their audiences or reach new markets to promote a new product. When we think a brand has a product that could do well here, and on the continent, that’s when we also chip in as a creative studio or as a partner.”
Creatives also point to Chanel’s Métiers d’Arts show in Senegal in 2022, which marked its first-ever show in Africa, as an example of how Western luxury brands can support the local fashion industry. Following its show, the Parisian house unveiled a series of initiatives that included partnering with Dakar’s cultural Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire to open its ateliers up to Senegalese students and artisans for a new educational programme.
Authentic storytelling and collaboration
Brands that fail to acknowledge the country or culture inspiring their collections are likely to face strong criticism and backlash. “Most brands just copy things without actually understanding where they come from,” says Gyasi. “When brands do stuff like that the value is not the same. If you’re picking ideas from somewhere, you have to understand what it actually is before you try to implement it.”
African photographers increasingly act as consultants — officially and unofficially — offering brands advice on cultural dos and don’ts.
Kenyan fashion photographer and filmmaker Minishi stresses that it’s important for photographers to feel empowered enough to challenge brands when they get it wrong, or when the cultural norms are misunderstood. “If we say East Africa, West Africa or Ghana, Senegal, they’re very different. And within those spaces and areas there are different nuances,” she says. “You can be very deliberate and intentional in honouring and respecting the culture that you’re in, the story that wants to be told, and sometimes you will need to make uncomfortable calls.”
Ghana’s Accra-based production company WB Group is working closely with major brands such as Puma and New Balance to help inject life into their creative projects. Founded by Ekow Barnes and William Annoh in 2020, the goal is to aid brands in developing authentic stories around Africa that reach beyond the surface level. WB Group combines broad cultural knowledge with overall lived experience, says Barnes. “As Black people, we’ve always been silenced. Sometimes when non-Black people try to tell our stories, it’s very much PR level or they just want to tap into some kind of trend,” he says. “Whenever it comes to storytelling, they want to tell it for us. Brands should work with local creatives because we can tell their story, we can get it right and also protect their brand identity.”
Through these partnerships, brands can leverage the photographer’s knowledge and authentically tell a story that translates across the continent as well as the diaspora. It’s a conversation that has shifted over the past few years, Lagos-based photographer Tayo recalls: “Over the last few years the projects and the conversations have been more about storytelling and about specificity on the context of what Africa really means beyond the countrification of Africa.” Countrification — where Africa is treated like one country with a single, homogenised culture rather than a continent of 53 countries and diverse cultures — is a damaging rhetoric that limits the region’s growth potential, experts say. Its nuances are often misunderstood.
Through his work, Tayo is highlighting the subcultures of Lagos while also capturing street style photography during major fashion events including Lagos Fashion Week and Homecoming Festival. For Tayo, the goal is to document “how people dress, what people are wearing and how people look in a meaningful way”.
Similarly, Minishi aims to assist magazines and brands within Kenya to create better campaigns and editorials, while simultaneously working with international titles to promote Kenyan photography and fashion.
The gaze of the photographer is ultimately impacted by their lived experiences, so Addy saw an opportunity to change the way Black people were photographed — images were often shot by non-Black people and lacked nuance. “[It] didn’t sit well with me,” he says. “Not because I think people can’t take other photographs, but the gaze of the photographer is tarnished depending on how they view, who they view and if they’ve been to that place before.” Context is imperative in photography, he says, which is why he’ll work with local creatives when in an environment that is unfamiliar.
“If you were to ask me what story I hoped to tell with this collection, I would point you to the globalisation of modern society — attested by my own origins bringing Africa and France together — and to Balmain’s rich heritage of craftsmanship, our attention to detail,” says Balmain’s Rousteing. “In my mind, this was almost a couture collection and adding Prince into the mix not only helped us tell that story, but made it feel even more elevated and couture. And doing so authentically was certainly the right approach because you cannot collaborate without some level of spontaneity and authenticity.”
From luxury brands to fashion publications, attitudes towards luxury in Africa are changing. Just as African designers battled to change people’s perception of fashion, photographers are facing a similar challenge. There’s opportunity for brands to not only create high-quality imagery in Africa, but work with leading local photographers who can help them tell an authentic story — and ultimately, get it right.
Read the original article on Vogue Business.