"What happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" - Langston Hughes
A few weeks ago in Uni, I was put into a group and we were given the task to produce a photoshoot in the style of i-D Magazine, taking inspiration from an exhibition and recreating it's story. The exhibition we decided to do our styling shoot on was the Brooklyn Museum's: Twice Militant: Lorraine Hansberry's Letters to "The Ladder."
Lorraine Hansberry was an African-American playwright/writer. She was the first black woman to write a play performed on Broadway. She is best known for the play A Raisin in the Sun, which is a title taken from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes.
Hansberry was a lesbian. She was an activist for gay rights and wrote letters about feminism and homophobia to a magazine called, The Ladder. For the shoot we decided to look into lesbianism, transgenderism. The aim was to style our models in an androgynous style in an attempt to confuse the audience of the models sexuality, and to capture key moments in Lorraine's life such as the rabbit fur white coat her parents bought her during the Great Depression, which resulted in her being attacked by her classmates; punching and throwing bricks at her and spilling ink all over her white fur.
 |
| There was only one person in mind when it came to choosing a model and that is my girl Yolanda Dombo. Androgyny style? Check! White fur? Check! |
We shot on location in places like the tube, under-paths and gritty, urban areas to give the shoot a raw "modern" feel; subtly adding key components from her life with the styling without being too obvious such as The Ladder, bricks, fur, masculine trousers etc.
 |
| Photographer: Stephanie Toms. Fashion Editor and Blogger at http://www.creatorsofdesire.com |
The whole concept of the shoot was that "Lorraine" was out to face the world but as a closeted lesbian she "hid behind a mask" (hence the mask). Anyway, I'm sure you kind of get my drift so ill stop telling you about the shoot and let the pictures speak for themselves.
Final images for our i-D Magazine style shoot:
 |
| Photographer: Stephanie Toms. Fashion Editor and Blogger at http://www.creatorsofdesire.com (Other models portraying lesbianism and transgenderism)
Scroll down and read the post below to know a little more about Lorraine Hansberry aka Yolanda Dombo
|
Mpho x
Lorraine Hansberry was indeed young, gifted and Black, and is still indeed an intriguing subject. It is tragic that one of the things that she hated about herself was her homosexuality. She also hated "secret love affairs", which could well be why she hated the homosexuality. I was pleased to see a production of Hansberry's "The Sign In Sidney Brustein's Window" at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival a few days ago (it runs until November in repertoire). Her vibrance and splendor absolutely shine. And she died so, so young. How I wish we could have been gifted with more of her poetry.
ReplyDelete