Recently, talented LA-based photographer and director Anunaka Morris showcased her recent photo series entitled ”FAME” in Brooklyn, New York. If you don’t know, Anaka has shot everyone from Kendrick Lamar and Yasiin Bey to Tyler the Creator and Willow Smith.
Morris explains that FAME is ethnographic research analyzing the growth of an artist’s persona versus their true identity through analog photography and film installation. The purpose of this comparison is to illustrate the social comparison of fame and how it is treated as a hierarchal element of our society (related gender and class affiliation). The juxtaposition of one’s artistic persona versus the growth of their “true identity” illustrates the unique nature of the individual’s experience of success in the art world. The perception of fame is individual, while the assumption of who and what is famous is assumed factual.
Additionally, fame is not always given to those who “deserve” the spotlight for their actions and creations, but rather to those who have an easily digestible persona and not much of a socially dynamic message. Inspired by the “Outsider Artist” term, FAME reaches to equalize the artistic field by portraying each subject as an artist who aims to push his or her positive movement, no matter how much power they may possess within the institutionalized definition of fame.
Check out the photo gallery below.
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Source: Instagram @Anunaka
Source: Anaka Morris Photo Credit: Justin VanNoy for Steed Media Service
