BLACK HURTS: An exploration of the Black experience

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BY Guest Contributor

December 2, 2021

BLACK HURTS: An exploration of the Black experience

Black Hurts is an exploration of double consciousness and liminality amongst black British youths in the UK by Photographer Suzannah Gabriel.

Black Hurts touches on the Black Lives Matter movement and the Mark Duggan murder whilst touching on the representation of the hoodie, and the London riots. Gabriel also explores the phrase ‘strong black woman’, whilst touching on recent murders at the hands of the police and white civilians in America.To validate the research, Gabriel interviewed the subjects of her photographs where they openly and vulnerably discussed their own experiences as black and mixed-race young adults in the UK.

Wearing many hats, Gabriel creative directs, photographs and even styles the shoots, finishing some of the images with hand-embroidered text.

Black Hurts was created for Suzannah’s final master’s project at the London College of Fashion where she studied MA Fashion Photography.

Definitions:

Double Consciousness has been defined as ‘sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others’ (Kirkland, 2013: 139).

Liminality can be defined as ‘a state of in-between-ness and ambiguity’ (Beech, 2011: 285).

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