JUNE 6, 2024 KATE MOTHES

“Liberty.” All images © Tamary Kudita

In her photographs, Kudita is fascinated by how “our unchosen histories” have shaped our identities and society today.

Born in Zimbabwe, photographer Tamary Kudita traces her ancestry to the historical Orange Free State, a Dutch colonial region and home to the Boers in Southern Africa that was incorporated into the British Empire in the early 19th century. Kudita is fascinated by how “our unchosen histories” have shaped our identities and society today.

“Lotus”

Since 2019, Kudita has trained her lens on Black figures, tapping into the historical and often violent erasure of African perspectives due to European colonization. She instead brings their heritage and presence to the fore. Through her ongoing series titled African Victorian and Birds of Paradise, the artist focuses on elaborate portraits, “illuminating once invisible bodies by making them hyper-visible.”

“Roots II”

Kudita’s subjects don brightly patterned Dutch wax fabrics fashioned around hoop skirts or tailored into vests reminiscent of European aristocratic dress. “I explore the place of African fabric in the refashioning of cultural and gendered identities,” she says in a statement, “as well as its use as a vehicle with which to honour people’s histories and cultural expressions.”[…]

Left: “African Victorian II.” Right: “African Victorian VII” (2019)

More: Untangling Ancestries, Tamary Kudita’s Remarkable Portraits Illuminate African Identities — Colossal