Hajar Benjida’s Probing Portraits of Atlanta’s Dancers

In her ongoing sequence, Atlanta Made Us Well-known, Moroccan-Dutch photographer Hajar Benjida shoots the non-public {and professional} lives of dancers from the town’s strip golf equipment. In one of many challenge’s most putting pictures, a girl referred to as Cleo breastfeeds her younger son, Andy. Sat on a wire couch in a grey-lit room, her prime bears the Mona Lisa whereas her nails are painted a daring shade of inexperienced, and the Eye of Horus is seen on her forearm. “I needed to seize motherhood as a result of a whole lot of the ladies talked about their youngsters,” explains Benjida. “Each elements – their jobs and their dwelling lives – are equally as necessary.” Conceived as Benjida’s commencement challenge, course from tutors helped anchor the sequence on this duality, whereas her gender allowed her to mix in, she says. “Quite a lot of instances I might sit for hours, simply listening to conversations. It made me take into consideration what I needed to doc.”

The most recent recipient of the British Journal of Pictures Worldwide Pictures Award – an honour beforehand bestowed on Juno Calypso and Emeric Lhuisset – final week, an exhibition of Atlanta Made Us Well-known opened at London’s TJ Boulting gallery. “That is my first UK present, and the primary solo present of my images. It feels good,” she says. “There’s an enormous following for the Atlanta music scene right here too, so it’s a great bridge between Atlanta and London.”

Initially all for pursuing style, a sequence of no-starts and a break from finding out worldwide enterprise (“a secure alternative, I wasn’t good at it”) turned Benjida on to image-making as she constructed up a portfolio to use to artwork colleges. “My final alternative was images, and I occurred to get into that program,” she tells AnOther of her preliminary entry level. “There’s so many alternative genres [in photography], however no matter you’re doing, you’re visually presenting historical past. Even if you happen to do style, it’s a visible illustration of that timeframe, in order that me. It’s like a historical past e-book.” In late 2015 she began capturing backstage at rap exhibits, whereas the next 12 months one other college project noticed the Instagram account @youngthugaspaintings come into being (it now boasts 194k followers).

The majority of the Atlanta sequence started in 2019, although Benjida made a number of early portraits in 2018 whereas interning for Cam Kirk. “I met him in 2016. It was pageant season and Metro Boomin had him as his private photographer,” she says. The pair stayed in contact and when Benjida was required to do an internship for college credit score, she reached out, solely studying on arrival that his studio was throughout the street from Magic Metropolis, the world-famous strip membership with a formidable hand in championing new hip-hop expertise, and the place she met the primary dancers. “I put within the location [for Kirk’s studio] and noticed it was proper throughout from Magic Metropolis. It was so loopy,” she says. Additionally identified for its kitchen, the photographer frequented the spot for lunch earlier than lastly talking with the housemother. “It actually helped going there in individual, as a result of I had tried to electronic mail them [from the Netherlands] and it was virtually like coping with a star.”

“These ladies that work within the golf equipment are used to cameras,” she continues, “particularly Magic Metropolis, because it’s documented in music movies, album covers and magazines. It wasn’t a shock that any person needed to take footage there.” What set her aside was the relationships she fashioned and the sensitivity with which she approached the ladies, all of which radiates by way of the wealthy catalogue on the partitions of TJ Boulting.

Nonetheless underway, Benjida travelled to Atlanta once more in 2020, simply earlier than the pandemic closed borders, most not too long ago returning a couple of months in the past, although she didn’t take any footage. As a substitute, she picked up the challenge in Miami to shoot at one other membership, KOD (King of Diamonds). “This lady reached out, she was like ‘I wish to work with you, my sister works as a housemother’ – that’s how I bought entrance, as a result of that membership is fairly unique.” Ultimately she’d like to show the challenge right into a e-book she says, with the addition of an extra New York part. “Atlanta, Miami, and New York, these are the largest cities inside the hip-hop business by way of strip golf equipment most frequented by artists. Atlanta Made Us Well-known can be one of many chapters.”

Atlanta Made Us Well-known by Hajar Benjida is on present at TJ Boulting in London till December 17, then from 10-28 January 2023.