Delphine Fawundu Explained

Adama Delphine Fawundu
Birth Date:1971
Birth Place:Brooklyn, NY
Nationality:American, Sierra Leonean
Field:Photography, Interdisciplinarity
Education:Stony Brook University - BA., Columbia University - MFA.
Spouse:Howard Buford

Adama Delphine Fawundu (born 1971)[1] Adama Delphine Fawundu is an artist born in Brooklyn, NY the ancestral space of the Lenni-Lanape. She is a descendant of the Mende, Krim, Bamileke, and Bubi peoples. Her multi-sensory artistic language centers around themes of indigenization and ancestral memory. Fawundu co-published the critically acclaimed book MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora with photographer Laylah Amatullah Barrayn. [2] – MFON is a book featuring the diverse works of women and non-binary photographers of African descent. Her works have been presented in numerous exhibitions worldwide. She is a Professor of Visual Arts at Columbia University.

Biography

Adama Delphine Fawundu was born in Brooklyn, NY, US, in a family with an Equatorial Guinean Bubi mother and Sierra Leonean Krim father. She was the first child in the family born in the United States.

Fawundu graduated from the Stony Brook University with a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies/Mass Communications, African American Studies. During her study she contributed to the bi-weekly student newspaper "Blackworld".[3] [4] Later she studied at New York University, where received a Master of Arts in Media Ecology.[5] She completed her MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University in 2018.[6]

Fawundu is married to Howard Buford and has three sons with him:[7] Amal Buford, Che Ali Buford (alumna of the New York Philharmonic, composer)[8] and Ras Kofi Buford.

Work

Fawundu started her artistic path as a photographer, working in this field since 1993. As her work developed, the range of media she worked in expanded until it embraced new artistic techniques – printmaking, video, sound and assemblage. Fawundu incorporates elements of biography and geography, philosophy and mythology, as well as individual and collective experience, to reflect on different social issues, mostly concentrating on the history and reality of the African Diaspora.

A significant part of Fawundu's early career is her hip hop photography work. She started out working with The Source, Vibe[9] and Beat Down Magazines, work that extended into a 10-year journey documenting hip-hop culture and urban music of the African Continent.[10] In 1995, on assignment for Beat Down magazine, Fawundu photographed Prodigy and Havoc of Mobb Deep for their second album The Infamous.[11]

Beginning in 2008, Fawundu documented hip hop, Afro-pop, and urban youth culture in Accra (Ghana), Bamako (Mali), Dakar (Senegal), Addis Abbaba (Ethiopia), Johannesburg (South Africa), Nairobi (Kenya), Freetown (Sierra Leone), and Lagos (Nigeria).[12]

In 2015, Fawundu participated in the LagosPhoto Festival with the project "Deconstructing She," using herself as the subject to address stereotypes and prejudice over remnants of slavery.[13] [14]

In 2016–17, along with eight other artists, Fawundu presented her work as part of the exhibition "Black Magic: AfroPasts/AfroFutures." Her installation "In the Face of History" is a wall of documents showing the oppression of various social groups, among them women and African Americans.[15] The installation was also shown as a part of the exhibition "In Plain Sight/Site" in 2019, and was highly acclaimed by many reviewers.[16] [17]

In 2017, along with Laylah Amatullah Barrayan, she independently published a book and a journal titled "MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora," representing works of over a hundred female photographers of African descent from all over the world.

The critically acclaimed book[18] [19] resulted in Fawundu going on a book tour which included events at the Tate Modern,[20] Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, International Center of Photography,[21] Harvard University and other institutions. In 2019 the co-authors were invited to a talk at a photographic festival in Los Angeles, Photoville, organized by the nonprofit organization United Photo Industries.[22] The book can be found in many libraries around the world, including the Victoria & Albert Museum,[23] Columbia University,[24] the New York Public Library[25] and Harvard University.[26]

In 2019, Fawundu presented her show "The sacred star of Isis and other stories". She used mixed media photographic works to explore the relationship between traditional Mende beliefs from Sierra Leone and modern world values. The work was exhibited at two locations nationwide – at the African American Museum in Philadelphia[27] and Crush Curatorial gallery in Chelsea, New York City.[28] It is currently to be seen at the Museum of African Diaspora.[29]

Fawundu's latest solo exhibit – "No Wahala, It's All Good: A Spiritual Cypher within the Hip-Hop Diaspora" – combines her early hip hop works with recent documentation of hip hop and urban music on the African continent, representing the cultural connection between Africa and its diaspora.[30]

Fawundu's photography and art works are exhibited in numerous private and public collections including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; the Brooklyn Historical Society, New York;  Corridor Gallery, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland; the Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of São Paulo, Brazil; the Norton Museum of Art in Villa La Pietra, Italy;[31] the Brighton Photo Biennial, United Kingdom, and others.

Awards and recognition

Adama Delphine Fawundu has received numerous awards, including:

She was also on the list of the following rankings:

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Patiently Waiting: Delphine Fawundu-Buford. Brooklyn Museum. October 12, 2019 .
  2. Book: MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora. Barrayan. Laylah Amatullah. Fawundu. Adama Delphine. 2017. Eye & I Incorporated. en.
  3. Web site: Blackworld. Stony Brook University. October 11, 2019.
  4. Web site: Blackworld. Stony Brook University. October 11, 2019.
  5. Web site: Alumni US New York University, Greater New York City Area. alumnius.net. October 11, 2019.
  6. Web site: Alumna Adama Delphine Fawundu '18 in Exhibition at Caribbean Culture Center African Diaspora Institute. Columbia – School of the Arts. en. October 10, 2019.
  7. Web site: The Coolest Black Family in America, No. 39: The Fawundu Bufords. Dingle. Joicelyn. July 2, 2016. EBONY. en-US. October 11, 2019.
  8. Web site: Jennifer Koh: Broadway World, January 17, 2019. jenniferkoh.com. October 17, 2019.
  9. Book: Vibe. September 1995. Vibe Media Group. 158. en.
  10. Web site: Here and Now - June 16th, 2019 – Contact High. June 1, 2019. ABC7 New York. en. October 17, 2019.
  11. Web site: DELPHINE FAWUNDU ON PHOTOGRAPHING THE "INFAMOUS" MOBB DEEP. DELPHINE FAWUNDU ON PHOTOGRAPHING THE "INFAMOUS" MOBB DEEP. en. October 17, 2019.
  12. Web site: No Wahala, It's All Good: A Spiritual Cypher within the Hip-Hop Diaspora — Adama Delphine Fawundu (2019). United Photo Industries. en-US. October 17, 2019.
  13. Web site: LagosPhoto International art festival of photography in Nigeria. LagosPhoto. October 11, 2019.
  14. Web site: LagosPhoto: Africa's future comes into focus. america.aljazeera.com. October 11, 2019.
  15. Web site: In the galleries: 'Afrofuturism,' defined in the moment, by nine artists. Jenkins. Mark. September 7, 2017. The Washington Post. October 10, 2019.
  16. Web site: Review In Plain Sight/Site. connecticut art review. en-US. October 11, 2019.
  17. Web site: In Plain Sight, Artspace Lays History Bare. Haven. Arts Council of Greater New. www.newhavenarts.org. en. October 11, 2019.
  18. Web site: The World as Seen by Black Female Photographers. Vogue. en. October 11, 2019.
  19. News: MFON: women photographers of the African diaspora – in pictures. Ruck. Joanna. May 2, 2018. The Guardian. October 11, 2019. en-GB. 0261-3077.
  20. Web site: MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora – Talk at Tate Modern. Tate. Tate. en-GB. October 11, 2019.
  21. Web site: MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora. November 6, 2017. International Center of Photography. en. October 11, 2019.
  22. News: Photoville Is Coming to Los Angeles. Sedacca. Matthew. April 2, 2019. The New York Times. October 11, 2019. en-US. 0362-4331.
  23. Book: MFON : women photographers of the African diaspora. Eye & I. Laylah Amatullah. Barrayan. 2017.
  24. Book: MFON : women photographers of the African diaspora. 2017. Eye & I Inc. Brooklyn, NY.
  25. Web site: New York Public Library Web Server 1 /All Locations. catalog.nypl.org. October 11, 2019.
  26. Web site: MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora.. Harvard University Fine Arts Library. October 12, 2019.
  27. Web site: Philaesthetic Exhibitions. African American Museum in Philadelphia. en. October 11, 2019.
  28. Web site: Art Exhibits, Art Magazine, Contemporary Art, Art Blogs, Art Artists. Fuse. Arte. March 2, 2019. Arte Fuse. en-US. October 11, 2019.
  29. Web site: The Sacred Star of Isis and Other Stories: Photography by Adama Delphine Fawundu. MoAD Museum of African Diaspora. October 11, 2019.
  30. Web site: No Wahala, It's All Good: A Spiritual Cypher within the Hip-Hop Diaspora — Adama Delphine Fawundu (2019). United Photo Industries. en-US. October 17, 2019.
  31. Web site: Resignifications 2018 – Artist Bios. Villa La Pietra. en-US. October 11, 2019.
  32. Web site: Announcing the 2018 Emerging Artist Grantees in New York – Rema Hort Mann Foundation. en-US. October 10, 2019.
  33. Web site: Meet Our Fall 2018 BRICworkspace Artists-in-Residence!. aclark. September 7, 2018. BRIC. en. October 10, 2019.
  34. Web site: Anonymous Was A Woman Award . November 9, 2021. Anonymous Was A Woman. November 10, 2021.
  35. Web site: Delphine Adama Fawundu. OKAYAFRICA's 100 WOMEN. en-US. October 10, 2019.
  36. Web site: Adama Delphine Fawundu. October 1, 2018. RPS Hundred Heroines. en-GB. October 10, 2019.