EDITORIAL: BLUEPRINT

Fashion culturesFashion editorialsFashion ethics

5 Jun

Written By daisy riley

In this editorial by stylist Daniella Valen, Blackness is not the subject, but the source code. There’s a long standing myth that Black skin can’t be photographed easily, which is rooted in the technological bias of cameras designed to pick up and prioritise light skin tones, in Blueprint the spotlight is taken away from an industry that chose to redesign the narrative, instead of redesigning the light.

Daniella is a Norwegian–Tanzanian stylist whose work is rooted in movement, contrast and instinct. She worked with Nigerian fashion photographer Seyi to capture these images, who said of the shoot

“Blueprint is really an exploration. I was drawn to how they use colour, space and Black subjects in such a strong way, and it made me curious to explore something similar but interpret it in my own way. Emotionally, the project feels like an ongoing experiment. Every time I shoot it, I learn something new. It reminds me that there’s still so much more to explore, and that’s what makes it exciting for me.”

If you aren’t familiar with the history referenced in this editorial, we’l give you a very brief overview.

For decades film and digital imaging were made to work with light skin tones, and photographers chose to stick to the racially biased narrative that ‘dark skin doesn't photograph well’ instead of actually developing their craft, and understanding lighting, so that they could make any model shine. The roots run deep, early digital cameras were trained entirely on light-skinned data sets, and even before that colour calibrators, film development chemicals and printing machines were all optimised for those tones. When in fact - it was always as easy as understanding your white balance and your lighting set up.

Refusing that visual history Daniella said “I’m here to tell a story. How you choose to read it is up to you. As a Black girl, I’ve often felt like there hasn’t been space to fully express my creativity or my beauty. Styling models who look like me and using my creativity to enhance that beauty felt important. I want to create a legacy where a little Black kid can look at the image and see the model is Black, the stylist is Black and the photographer is Black. On set the energy was unreal, everyone was so gassed. If the space doesn’t exist for you, you create one.”