Ella Owusu

ellatography1@gmail.com Website

Untamed Blackness

The black woman and her problematic mane

I make cinematic photographs that fit into the genre of documentary and fashion. My work deals with real life situations and recreates them in dramatized and fictional scenes that connect with the viewer and visually engages them. The central themes of my work are race, culture, youth and identity.

A distinctive feature of my work is my lighting and how I approach lighting to create certain atmospheres and give my photographs that cinematic effect. Narrative is very important in my work too and how I direct my subjects as it is what sets the scene. Some photographers who have inspired my work are Gregory Crewdson, Sally Mann, Nan Goldin and Ryan Schude. I enjoy their work because of their ability to freeze a moment of reality into a staged scene based on fact or the everyday, but recreate it in a way that shocks the viewer and makes them unsure of what they see.

My project Untamed Blackness addresses race and identity, with the focus on black girls breaking beauty standards and using stereotypes against themselves. Through staging scenes, I am embracing the more negative associations with black women and black culture and in doing so creating spaces for black women to perform and play with and subvert these stereotypes. Making this work and these spaces for young, black girls is socially significant as it's still not fully acknowledged in Ireland.