Photographers
From Mobutu to Beyoncé" by Emilie Régnier at the Bronx Documentary Center
PhotocriticEtcThe Bronx Documentary Center’s new exhibition, by the Haitian-Canadian photographer Émilie Régnier, explores the ongoing cultural conversation between Africa and the West.
Émilie, who grew up in Central Africa, has created a series of portraits exploring the symbolic power of leopard patterns and prints in Dakar, Kinshasa, Johannesburg, Paris and even a small town in Texas.
Émilie also documents hairstyles as a means of expression in Côte d'Ivoire, the fashion capital of West Africa, where women credit American pop stars such as Beyoncé and Rihanna with influencing their style and fashion. The completed cultural feedback loop, as Émilie’s photos demonstrate, is one in which many American designers and artists have traditionally taken their cues from African design and style.
The exhibition runs at the Bronx Documentary Center, 614 Courtlandt Avenue (@ 151st St.) Bronx, New York 10451, until 4 June 2017.
