UNSEEN AMSTERDAM
September 16-18, 2022 - Unseen Photography, Amsterdan
We presented two of our emerging artists at Unseen, showcasing three bodies of work: a collection of portraiture, a documentary project capturing the first few days of the Black Lives Matter protests in NYC from 2020, which was published in Time Magazine and The New York Times Magazine, and a documentary story about the community of a local basketball court in the South Bronx. These photographs offered a unique perspective on fashion, conflict, and community in New York City.
Malike Sidibe
Malike Sidibe is a 25-year-old artist (originally from the Ivory Coast). Besides producing beautiful work that is influenced by his African heritage, Sidibe has gained global recognition for his emotive and poignant images documenting the Black Lives Matter Movement. His clients include Time Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, MET Museum, Nike, Instagram, Footlocker, Nikon USA, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, Stern Magazine, The Atlantic, Esquire Magazine, Town and Country Magazine, and many others.
Major themes in my portraiture are movement and surreal visual-scapes. I love playing with the subjects, frozen still as if suspended in a dream, sometimes placing them deeply set within their environments, such as in my Mamiwata Series, or conversely, existing on their own plane, as if my lens had the power to suck the air out of the room. I’m especially focused on this technique when capturing a moving subject. A silk scarf swaying in harmony with a woman or pearls dancing from the cap of a seemingly still man, capture the traces of a subject who is most interesting in my eye when they are moving and in harmony with the space.
Danny Martinez
"Everyone has a story to tell." Those were the words that stuck with me long after hearing them in my first photography class at NYC Salt. When I tell people I grew up in The Bronx, sometimes they do a double take. The Bronx is known as “the boogie down Bronx”, “the birthplace of hip hop”, and “the place you might not want to be after the sun goes down”. Despite the occasional negative comments, I see it as the beautiful place that shaped me into the person I am today.
Community has always been a big thing for me. Growing up and living in the same apartment my whole life has allowed me to really understand where I come from. At the age of fifteen I got my first camera and quickly noticed there was a great feeling that came along with the photos I would capture. Besides keeping me out of trouble, photography allowed me to open up as a person and feel comfortable sharing my ideas and dreams with family and friends. Not until I graduated from high school did I revisit my teacher saying, "Everyone has a story to tell. … when searching for that story, look where you're most comfortable and start close to home.” I might have taken that sentence a little too literally when I began my first project titled "A Gated Community.”
