The radical beauty of Africa, in portraits | Iké Udé

In 1996, I was commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum

to execute a large body of work called "Uses of Evidence."

It was a cube --

a very well large cube, at that.

Each side had a window

in order for the spectators to view the interior of the structure.

The exterior of the structure was a collage of Africa and Africans

as portrayed in the Western media and literature.

A look through the windows revealed a sharp contrast:

within the cubes are tranquil, civilized, domestic images

of African family members, friends

and Nigerian professionals,

ranging from writers, poets, fashion designers, etc.

The thing is,

both the exterior and the interior images are quite true.

But the images captured by Western media

overwhelmingly depict Africans as basically primitive at best,

or barely distinguishable from the African animals.

Not much has changed, I'm afraid, since 1996,

when I executed this work.

I began my professional photography practice in 1994,

but my passion and enthusiasm for photography

goes back to childhood,

when my parents arranged for us to be photographed

by a professional photographer

on almost a monthly basis.

It was also an opportunity for my siblings to dress up in our latest gear,

made by our tailor.

Later, when I was in boarding school,

my friends and I bought Polaroid cameras,

and then I began to experiment with self-portraiture,

or what I would call

"proto-selfie auto-portraits."

(Laughter)

"Cover Girl 1994" was my first major work

that was critically well received in the US and Europe

and quite instantly became a part of the school anthologies

at universities and colleges.

With the "Cover Girl" series,

I wanted to reimagine the magazine cover

with imagery totally unexpected, yet profoundly reasonable.

The "Cover Girl" series proposed a different way

the African can be represented in a more complex manner.

Like "Cover Girl," the "Sartorial Anarchy" series

is made up of self-portraits.

It is an ongoing body of work, started in 2010.

In each image, I married disparate costumes

from widely diverse traditions, countries and time frames.

And in mixing eras, cultures,

I was able to bring harmony, as it were,

to their similarly irreconcilable differences.

These differences became a source

of inspired artistic celebration.

For example,

in "Sartorial Anarchy #4,"

I mixed a boater hat,

inspired by the traditional Eton-Oxford College Boat Race,

with a green Afghan traditional coat

and an American Boy Scout shirt --

a culture clash that works.

In "Sartorial Anarchy #5,"

I wore a macaroni wig,

inspired by eighteenth-century macaroni headgear from England.

This was paired with a British Norfolk jacket,

Yoruba Nigerian trousers,

and, improbably, a South African Zulu fighting stick.

All harmoniously coexist on one body.

And with "Sartorial Anarchy," I began to invest more

into the organization of my pictures.

I also began to investigate the vast possibilities of color:

its emotional values,

psychological impulse,

poetic allure

and a boundless capacity beyond the realm of meaning and logic.

Now, enter Nollywood.

In October of 2014,

I returned to Lagos, Nigeria, after over three decades away

and took photographs of 64 Nollywood personalities.

I captured a cross section of the industry,

as well as the next generation of rising stars.

Nollywood is the first time that you have a school of African filmmakers

truly, truly, profoundly in charge of telling African stories.

In their varied movies --

from romantic movies, horror films, gangster movies to action movies --

one sees Nigerians portrayed with many layers of complexities.

All the Nigerian, or "Naija," archetypes, if you allow, are there --

from the divvers, the "Shakara," the coquette,

the gangsters, the rich, the corrupt politicians,

the whore, the pimp --

all in their swagger.

And of course, you have the lowlifes and the losers, too,

all vividly portrayed.

Nollywood is Africa's mirror par excellence.

Typically, I direct all of my portraits,

from the way my subject conducts his or her head,

the way the neck is tilted,

the expression of the fingers,

the gestures of the hands,

to the gaze

and overall bearing and countenance.

Let me describe some of the photographs for you.

Genevieve Nnaji.

She is the reigning queen of Nollywood.

Here, I was quoting from the grand, Pharaonic African cultures

of the Nile Valley civilizations;

namely, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia,

so as to imbue her with a stately, ironic, calm grandeur.

Taiwo Ajai-Lycett is the grande dame of Nollywood.

Every aspect of her being commands attention.

So I posed her with her back to the audience.

Her face turned to meet us with a redoubtable gaze.

She doesn't need to seek our approval.

She's all that.

Sadiq Daba.

There was an unspoken authoritarian and imperial bearing

that Sadiq Daba exudes upon meeting him.

In this portrait, he simply sat

and allowed his massive, massive Nigerian caftan

to signal his status.

Quite an accomplishment.

Belinda Effah.

Belinda Effah's portrait allowed me to indulge my passion for color,

dressed in a long, fitted blue dress that emphasizes her curves,

seated on an upholstered green velvet bench.

I gamely employed the multicolored carpet

and a vibrant color,

in order to evoke the splendor of the multicolored painted bunting bird.

Everything was designed to harmonize the figure of Belinda within the frame.

Monalisa Chinda is, shall we say,

the epitome of the luxe existence and lifestyle.

Her picture, or portrait, pretty much speaks for itself.

Alexx Ekubo is a sharp study

in simplified elegance and dignity

and a harmony in blue and white, as well.

Enyinna Nwigwe is a Nollywood matinee idol.

There is whiff of the rake about him,

and that gives him an enchanting edge.

That's what I felt when I designed and organized the portrait.

Now, Nollywood is a new phase of Africa.

It is modern, post-modern,

meta-modern, bold

sexy, shrewd

and with a contagious attitude worth catching.

As the finale of the project,

I assembled the Nollywood stars

into a group grand portrait of 64 subjects,

called "The School of Nollywood,"

which was inspired by Rafael's "School of Athens,"

that was done circa 1509.

It is at the Vatican.

This grand group portrait

is the exact same size as Rafael's "School of Athens."

It measures roughly 27 feet in width

by six and a half feet in height.

Nollywood also exemplifies a type of modernity

never before seen in Africa.

Think of it:

there has never been anything so ubiquitous

with such iconic optics

to come out of Africa

since the Nile Valley civilizations

of Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia.

Outside of Nollywood,

the image of Africa remains frozen in the old "National Geographic" mode

and safari perspective.

But as Africans continue to step and see themselves portrayed by Nollywood

in their varied and fantastic complexities,

they will, in turn, propagate and perpetuate

the positive image of themselves.

This is what Hollywood did and continues to do for the West.

As shocking as this may be,

it is almost a taboo in the art world

to show Africans in a modern framework --

that is to say, as polished, dry-cleaned,

manicured, pedicured and coiffed.

(Applause)

Part of my job is to keep beautifying Africa for the world,

one portrait at a time.

Thank you.

(Applause)