‘Black is Beautiful’ movement photographer, Kwame Brathwaite passes at 85

Kwame Brathwaite, the pioneering activist and artist whose images helped define the aesthetics of the “Black is Beautiful” era of the 1960s and beyond, died on April 1 at the age of 85.

In a post on Instagram, his son Kwame Brathwaite, Jr., made the announcement of his father’s passing. Saying, “I am deeply saddened to share that my Baba, the patriarch of our family, our rock and my hero has transitioned.”

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In recent years, curators, historians, and collectors have shown renewed interest in Brathwaite’s work. His first significant institutional retrospective, which was organised by the Aperture Foundation, made its debut in 2019 at the Skirball Cultural Centre in Los Angeles before travelling the nation.