Isolde Brielmaier in conversation with Aruna D’Souza at The Center for Black Visual Culture

Tuesday, September 27, 2022 from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. EST, New York University - Institute of African American Affair, Centre for Black Visual Culture will host an online conversation with Isolde Brielmaier, Deputy Director of the New Museum and Guest Curator at the ICP - International Center for Photography, and Aruna D’Souza, writer and art critic. During the event they will discuss about Brielmaier’s last book I am Sparking: N.V. Parekh and His Portrait Studio Clients: Mombasa, Kenya, 1940-1980 (Damiani, 2022) and explore the nuanced ways Parekh’s portrait studio reflected Mombasa’s identity.

Registration required here: https://bit.ly/3qQk2z

N. V. Parekh was an influential portrait photographer whose studio, located in Mombasa in the 20th-century, attracted clients from East Africa and beyond. 'I Am Sparkling: N. V. Parekh and His Portrait Studio Clients—Mombasa, Kenya 1940-1980' is a discrete examination of an historically-significant artist and his distinct clientele; and the temporal, geographic, and cultural milieu in which their collaborations flourished.

The manuscript is based on a rarely accessed photographic archive and is complemented by extensive interviews with Parekh’s diverse clientele, with a particular focus on women as clients of studio photographers.

The manuscript also includes a preface interview with the artist Wangechi Mutu.