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(via Punc font download for Web or Photoshop.)

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Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has acquired the archives of the hip-hop and art innovator Fab 5 Freddy. Story.

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CLASSIC OLD-SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHY IN GHANA

Philip Kwame Apagya was born in Sekondi in Western Ghana in 1958, after a period of apprenticeship in his father’s photo studio (a former crime-scene photographer), he worked as a travelling photographer for a while in Ivory Coast following the colour revolution in the late 1980s. After his photojournalism studies at the Ghana institute of journalism, he opened his own studio in Shama in the Western region of Ghana in 1982.

Philip Kwame Apagya is known worldwide, because of his participation in many personal and collective exhibitions. among others:

‘Snap Me One!’ studio photographers in africa ,special emphasis was put on the studio decorations. the items shown include 150 photographs, 10 original backdrops from ghana as well as other materials. visitors had the opportunity to be ‘snapped’ in front of a backdrop of their choice. the photos were taken by Philip Kwame Apagya.

A DesignBoom review of Philip’s works states

“ In africa, a photo studio is the place where dreams come true. for a few pence, ordinary mortals can strike a pose and achieve immortality, have things they haven’t got and may never have, be people they are not and may never be, have access to the inaccessible. People start asking for personal portraits that go beyond the image usually present on identity papers, often the only 'popular portrait’ available. this open new roads to the art of photographic portrait, with possibility for the artist to catch special moments in people’s existence: people ask for a picture for several reasons, but with the common desire to have a 'funny picture’. In this process, new forms of self-representation become part of a new social identity: this is the framework in which we might consider the work of Philip Kwame Apagya.

Philip Kwame Apagya’s formal portraits in front of commissioned painted backgrounds seem to be suspended between realism and a sort of naïvité, They are both unreal and hyperealistic: the dreams of african people are put on stage - against scenery which praises consumer society.

The subject stands in front of a painted backdrop that portrays everything people dream of having: fake new england country houses showing off some porcelain, VCRs and TVs in bar closets, modern kitchens with well-stocked refrigerators with coke and cheetos… portraits with with a quarter / half / full smile, because nobody in africa is really deceived by make-believe… but for one glorious moment they can have it all.

These portraits are highly amusing for us, 'western people’, but are also unintentionally disturbing because of the insight they offer into a growing cultural vacuum. This is the dream, and it is empty and materialistic”

Philip’s works has toured the world and exhibited in some of the best galleries.

1998 stadtmuseum, munich; city museum abteiberg, mönchengladbach; iwalewa-house, university of bayreuth; 1999 smithsonianiInstitute, washington 2000 royal tropical institute, amsterdam

a catalogue with the same title is available. 'snap me one!’ studio photographers in africa prestel-verlag, 1998

'africa by africa’ / ’ l'afrique par elle-même’ / 'portrait afrika’ a photographic view 1999 maison européenne de la photographie, paris; barbican art gallery, london; south african national gallery, cape town;

2000, third rencontres de la photographie africaine, bamako, mali; haus der kulturen der welt, berlin;

'africa inside’ 2000 noorderlicht 2000 photography festival, fries museum, groningen; 'collezione etro uomo spring/summer 2000’, galleria luisa delle piane, milan

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Eid al-Adha Central Mosque, Kotokuraba, Cape Coast | 01 September 2017

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Shameik Moore for Wonderland Magazine Fall/Winter 2018.

📸: Jerry Buttles

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Bal Poussière - Collection issue de la collaboration entre Afrikanista & Black Square , disponible à partir du 2 Novembre 2018!

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What the public transport mini-bus is called in every African country.

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GLAMOUR // Issa Rae: ‘There Was No Blueprint for My Career’

BY ANGELICA NWANDU PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETRA COLLINS STYLED BY STELLA GREENSPAN

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Ike & Tina Turner in Ghana (1971)  

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tbt 

#me 

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Start reblogging the money blessings post…

If you haven’t already done it…. Go hit that reblog button. Do what you have to, just do that too.

Like seriously. Just find one and reblog it real quick. I post a couple yesterday and put into the universe that I actually wanted it

Only been at work for a couple and I get this at as a tip! (tips ain’t normal at ALL in here)

Come on now!!

Let it work for y’all too

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BOYS DONT CRY MAG

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“The Innocents documents the stories of individuals who served time in prison for violent crimes they did not commit. At issue is the question of photography’s function as a credible eyewitness and arbiter of justice.” Project by Taryn Simon. … RONALD JONES (2002) Scene of arrest, South Side, Chicago, Illinois. Served 8 years of a Death sentence.

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My girl was outed to a homophobic family and was kicked out her home. Her entire family turned against her and she was forced to use her entire funds on a apartment. Week after being outed she was fired from her job bc she tried getting 2 jobs and they had a problem with her asking for a schedule change. 
We see each other like once a year bc I’m in jersey n was in school n she’s in ga but I’m permanently moving to ga to help her. When she was outed she had anxiety attacks n not having a job made it worse. She’s been begging for me but I was a student n from helping my mom I don’t have the money to be there physically as I need to. Last time I saw her was February. Being that I’m out of school I’m able to move if u guys could help I need 200 to make it to her 700 for our next month’s rent being that she lost her job n 400 for food n electricity bill. Guys please help I need to be with my girl.