Rachel Seidu :
Spirited Away
Nigerian-Ghanaian photographer, Rachel Seidu is on a mission to document and explore the fluidity of existence: questioning the social constructs of gender and sexuality beyond homogenous representations of being. Her portraits extend an entry into a way of seeing Love, joy and connection, amidst criminalising state laws and complex socio-cultural frameworks.
“The most important thing to me, across all my work, is intimacy. I am looking for warm
moments. Moments that make me feel.”
A natural storyteller, Rachel shares about her upbringing and how it has contributed to her personal longing for warmth. “At the age of 10, my mother and her husband split, so I had to start living with different people. I’ve lived with so many people.” Her mother, who was sleeping in a church at this time, had to send her to live with her father and his family.
“Suddenly I had siblings, but I didn’t always feel part of the family. So that is what I’m always seeking for. Intimacy is something I had to discover for myself, through friendship and love.”
It is through this sensitivity, that Seidu’s photographs, encompassed in a distinct visual style, are revealing the beautiful and unseen, but what is beauty? An experience held in the eyes of a few, subjective and yet universal. Western philosophy traditionally accounts it as one of the ultimate values among goodness, truth and justice, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. However, within the context of African photography: beauty, at its best, can become a door into greater conversations about identity, belonging and divine connections.
“I am not looking for the most beautiful person, I photograph who my spirit leads me to.
Creating portraits is about the feeling more than anything.”
Seidu’s photographic journey began as a volunteer in her church, where she was given a camera and told to press the shutter. This experience was enough to spark curiosity and ask questions about how she could tell new stories through photographs. In 2018, while studying Fine Art at the University of Benin, Rachel started photographing using her phone until she was able to get a camera. During these times, she discovered the power of visual storytelling.
Her recent body of work, Peas In A Pod, ‘challenges simplistic conceptualisation of queerness across legal frameworks. By juxtaposing the experience of queer people in criminalised spaces like Nigeria and non-criminalised Western spaces, Rachel triggers a reconsideration of where the true challenges and privileges lie for queer people globally’.
“Growing up, I wanted to be a Nollywood star. I’m drawn to photographing
people, I think it is an interest in people, I’m interested in their stories.”
Understanding anti-LGBTQI+ laws and how social discrimination in a particular place actually plays itself out, is a heavy and necessary conversation. Laws such as the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act of 2014, essentially gives discrimination permission to be perpetuated. This can (and has) resulted in violence for those who are suspected of being part of the queer community. In an essay, Sociology PhD candidate, Adebayo Quadry-Adekanbi addresses how colonialism shifted the laws regarding queerness in Africa, bringing about a discriminatory legal mandate that has impacted various African societies.
Furthermore, Quadry-Adekanbi clarifies that, even though we did not live in a pre-colonial queer utopia, ‘these identities were not always targeted with legal frameworks, suggesting some degree of acceptance and negotiation’. Consequently, many artists living and working on the continent are questioning how people are constructing new familial dynamics and navigating the centuries long ripple of colonial indoctrination.
“It’s not safe anywhere, you have to find one place and make it your home. The only
safe place is your room.”
Perhaps, it is this harsh reality that makes Seidu’s photographs so compelling, as they shift beyond victimhood and aim to preserve these important reflections of tenderness. Her work reminds us to hold onto the intimate moments in-between, and how love and joy can also be a form of resistance.
Images courtesy of the artist ©Rachel Seidu
