Rotimi Fani-Kayode in New York

06/09/2018

© Rotimi Fani-Kayode

Some artists are motivated by anger, others by lust. But some, like Nigerian photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955–89), are moved by both. ‘I seek,’ he wrote in his landmark essay ‘Traces of Ecstasy’, ‘to translate my rage and my desire into new images which will undermine conventional perceptions and which may reveal hidden worlds.’ The pictures chosen for ‘Rage & Desire’, with their unashamedly homoerotic arrangements of naked, black male bodies, perfectly reflect today’s cultural climate but were actually made in late 1980s Britain. And short though his career was, Fani-Kayode was way ahead of his time; looking at them now, these photographs seem more powerful, seductive and relevant than ever.

More information at: Hales Project Room