I have been a big fan of The Sartorialist since I discovered the world of blogging last year. I love his ability to see "fashion" in regular folks walking down the street as well as those within the fashion industry in which he works. However, one of my disappoints has always been the limitations on where he gets to work. It seems he doesn't get to travel too far off the beaten fashion path (mainly US, Europe, Australia, and Brazil). In the short time I got to spend in various countries in Africa, I was always fascinated by the regular fashion taste of regular folks. The unbelievable combination of color, textures, and even sizes always struck me as completely amazing and I found it sad that the world didn't get to see all of this.
As a result, you can only imagine my joy at finding out about Nontsikelelo 'Lolo' Veleko over at Conscientious. The fact that this photographer is a female is really a great starting point for me as I just haven't come across that many African female photographers (I admit I haven't thought much about "gender balance" as far as my blog goes). In addition, I absolutely love these shots of street fashion in Jo'burg. I've shown you many images of the fashions coming out of South African runways...but I totally missed out on the streetways until now.
I think that for people who live on the continent or have traveled (beyond the "get to 'Africa,' jump on safari tour, snap zebra, snap lion, now back to the West" tourist) there, it is quite easy to know just how important fashion is to Africans whether they are wearing the newest designers labels or the newest items hot off their tailor's machine. Thank goodness for folks like Veleko who are able to remind us that fashion is just as important in the self-identity of everyday folks in Africa as it is for the stylized of New York, Paris, and Rome.
{Photos from AfroNova}
5 comments:
Nnontsikelelo "Lolo" Veleko work was featured at NYU's Grey Art Gallery last year. In fact I did a feature about in October on the Poetics of Cloth/African Textiles exhibits. The MET also ran a similar exhibit that ended in March.
Her work is amazing! She captures all of her subjects perfectly and to see it in person was just as amazing. So much vibrancy and beauty in all that she does!
Her work is fabulous! I was in NYC this past weekend and just realized how much stuff like uber cool Art Gallerys and MET exhibits I miss by not living there anymore. The International Photography Museum even had a whole exhibit to just African photographers that I missed out on! DC has some cool stuff but definitely not to the same extent. I'll be back in NYC this coming weekend and I'm at least trying to see/touch the SUNO collection. So much to squeeze in, so little time. :(
This blog is great and the pictures are........wow! Thanks for including Globalgiving in the midst of all these hipsters. We appreciate it and want to hear from you and your followers. Have any of you visited any of our projects in Africa? WOuld you? COuld you? WOuld you send us an electronic postcard to tell us what you saw and thought? We are looking for feedback from folks who are travelleing around. Thanks for your support. Margaret from Globalgiving.
Thanks for the redirect to conscientious. I too love the sartorialist (his pics are so good they look styled) and wished he'd have more (location) varied content.
Totally LIGHT and PERFECT style . I will like it too !! As the nice picture they showing ,it`s quality : ) i`m ready to see .
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