Dazhane Leah is from northwest London and she has created a stunning photo series about black power and what it means to people. Leah used the power of social media to gather information on what black power means to everyone and her work landed on the cover of every blog from Buzzfeed to the BBC UK.
“I asked everyone what the phrase ‘black power’ meant to them,” she told BuzzFeed News. “Based on everyone’s answers I was able to come up with themes for each shoot.”
She got a number of responses including:
“Understanding that our hair is meaningful”, “being unapologetic about our features, culture, and background” and “to love everything about yourself”. “To me, it means to be comfortable in your own beautiful black skin.”
The black power series lead her to the brilliant photos you see here and her response about what inspired her was simply:
“I see beauty in natural hair and I see beauty in flowers – together I think they go hand in hand and I wanted to express my own passions and opinions as well as [the views of] others through my photos.”
I particularly loved this quote:
“Flowers are usually symbolic of life, beauty, vibrancy – the list goes on – whereas for a long time natural hair and afros were and still are looked down upon,” she said. They were seen as “unmanageable” and “untamed”, and didn’t fit society’s idea of “good hair”. “It’s not only dead straight, long hair that is beautiful. Afro-textured hair is God-given and equally should be seen as ‘good hair’.”
Afro Blooming is the most beautiful ‘thing’ I have seen this week and it is as inspiring as Leah hoped it would be. I know that I am not alone with my opinion.
In case you are wondering who the beautiful model is in the pictures, well her name is Crystal Marcelle and she has her own definition of black power. She said:
“Black power is an awareness of self, a knowledge of your roots and your place in the world. without that knowledge there is no black power”
What do you think about the photos?
Beautiful
It’s weird as hell but I love it