“Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges, is viewed as the spiritual capital of India,” photographer Svetlin Yosifov says. “It’s also known as the city of death. While many Hindus undertake pilgrimage to see its temples and ghats, and bathe in the sacred river, some come when they feel death is near. Hindu scripture says dying and being cremated there frees a person from the cycle of rebirth and grants them salvation.”

In 2022, Yosifov, from Bulgaria, had already visited India four times, including one trip to Varanasi. This time he traversed the city on foot for hours, looking for the perfect shot. “The streets are so crowded,” he says. “Any empty space is filled instantly.”

Finding a pause in the crowds, he took this shot. “Under a bright umbrella the vendor was selling tender pears and apples, beautiful pomegranates and persimmons, oranges, lemons and pineapples. The smoke comes not from a fellow market-seller, but from a large cremation site, just out of shot.”

About 100 bodies are cremated in the city each day; afterwards, the ash is swept into the river. “One photo is not enough to reveal the secrets of this city, but I do think it shows the atmosphere on the streets,” Yosifov says. “When I look at this now, I remember the heat, the smell of smoke, the constant dust in the air. Varanasi is not an ordinary place – it’s an experience.”

THE boss of a photography firm which offered to remove additional support needs (ASN) children from a class photo has apologised to parents.

Families of pupils at Aboyne Primary School in Aberdeenshire complained after they were offered a choice of pictures with or without pupils with complex needs.

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The move sparked widespread outrage with one devastated mum accusing the firm of “erasing her child”.

The council claimed the decision was not taken by the school and the link was immediately removed.

Cornwall-based Tempest Photography boss Terence Tempest said he is “heartbroken” over the blunder and is in crisis talks with staff at his business.

He told the Daily Mail: “We have released a statement but at the moment I’m just trying to find out what stimulated this and what the hell happened.

“It’s just unacceptable, I don’t know what’s happened. It’s certainly not a policy of ours.

“We had a crisis meeting this morning, we are having another one this afternoon.”

“Of course I understand how upset the families must be, I would be too.”

Mr Tempest said a probe is underway to establish why the blunder happened.

He added: “I’m not sure what the current policy is frankly, it depends what we are asked to do. We just respond to what we are asked for.

“We have got another meeting coming up and will find out whether the photographer was asked to do it. Did they do it off their own back?”

Mum-of-two Natalie Pinnell, 38, said her nine-year-old daughter Erin felt “erasable from society” following the “disrespectful” move.

Parents of children in two classes were sent two links to official photographs – one including children with ASN and one without.

Natalie said: “The photographer gave the parents the option to delete members of their class.

“Finding out the only classes that got two links was an ASN-related class just blew my mind.”

In one class, two people were removed from the photograph and in the other only Erin had been removed.

Natalie added: “We should not be providing an option to delete one human or in the other class two humans from history.

“It was like ‘would you like Erin in it or not?’

“It’s disrespectful, it’s harmful, it’s ableist, it’s discriminatory and the photography company have a lot to answer for.”

Lisa Boyd’s daughter Lily was also left out of the photographs.

Lily, who uses a wheelchair, was one of two kids in her class who were removed.

Lisa said she was in “utter disbelief” when she saw the photo.

She said: “I was devastated and furious all at the same time.

“I thought there must be a reason. 

“The school have never ever excluded Lily from anything, in fact they go to extra lengths to ensure she’s included 

“I couldn’t believe it 

“I actually contacted Tempest and they were unbelievably unhelpful they wouldn’t really talk to me about it and the school were just heartbroken. 

“I was devastated for Lily really.” 

First Minister Humza Yousaf waded into the row saying it was “shameful” to omit children with complex needs from some school photographs.

The First Minister was asked about the reports as he visited a soft play centre in Cumbernauld.

He said it was “shameful, really dreadful”.

He told the PA news agency: “It should never have happened at all.
“I don’t want to see another single example of that anywhere in Scotland. It’s not acceptable, not right.

“And I’m pleased the council responsible has apologised.”

Following the incident, a spokesperson from Tempest Photography said: “Recently, after capturing a class group photograph, one of our photographers took additional images of the class group which mitted some members of the class from the photograph.

“We deeply regret any upset this has caused and would like to sincerely apologise to the parents and children affected.

“We are a family run business and photograph at schools across the UK and would like to reassure our customers that this is not standard procedure for our company and we are taking this matter very seriously.

“We are committed to implementing meaningful changes to prevent such an occurrence in the future.”

Aberdeenshire Council said: “We are aware that following Aboyne Primary School’s recent school class photographs, links to purchase the pictures included images with and without complex needs provision pupils.

“Whilst this was not a decision taken by the school, we absolutely appreciate the distress and hurt this has caused some parents and carers and we are sincerely sorry.

“The issue has been taken up with the photography company directly as this is totally unacceptable.”

That community would be South Philadelphia, where Lemons was born and raised. Aptly titled “Quiladelphia”, the young photographer’s most recent solo exhibition pays tribute to his hometown, as well as fellow members of the Black queer community who inhabit it. “Photography has always been a space for me to claim queer identity, especially with my last body of work,” Lemons says about the exhibit’s origins. Shot entirely on film, the series features his own friends and creative contemporaries – worlds away from the splashy celebrity portraits he’s become more widely known for.

“‘Quiladelphia’ challenged me a little bit more with intimacy because we were including nudity,” Lemons continues. “It’s really fun to have that level of trust from people that you just respect, like, oh, I’m respected enough that you guys trust me with your nude body. When doing nudes you have to be very careful, because I see so many people abuse that relationship and abuse that power. I’m very careful about navigating that conversation. I hope that it just empowers everyone to let your freak flag fly. Freak flag in the sense of, just be who you are.”

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Growing up as the child of teen parents, commuting between home in South Philly and school in the city centre, Lemons knows a thing or two about code switching, trying to figure out who you are. I wonder openly whether this has given him that innate instinct which is hard to find in even the most seasoned of photographers – an ability to recognise people for who they are; to afford them the level of understanding and respect required to create genuine, sincere portraiture; to not only see others, but allow them to feel seen.

“It’s different because ‘Quiladelphia’ democratised who gets to be shot by me. For a long time a lot of people thought it was just gonna be like Billie, these larger-than-life people,” says Lemons. “But anyone that I shoot, I really just respect as a person – and I’m interested in giving them a photo that they just enjoy, and really get to see themselves. That’s my first goal as a photographer. I just naturally want to be interested in you.”

If consuming honest and authentic imagery feels rare in our attention economy, that’s because it is. It’s what makes Lemons’ ability to bring out the humanity of his subjects all the more special, resulting in work that is equal parts probing, introspective and inspirational. “I think great art makes people uncomfortable, and I’m happy there’s so much conversation around this work. Because I don’t want silence. Historically, too, silence equals death.”

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Just as artists like Lyle Ashton Harris and Robert Mapplethorpe did with their groundbreaking work, Lemons has refused to stay silent throughout his career, making noise with thought-provoking imagery which makes queer identity the main focus. “Every time I have this new idea, I go, ‘No, there’s a gay artist that was talking about this in the 70s’”, says Lemons. “Thinking about my work on the largest scale of this country, how can I keep putting things forward that are taboo, that are from the communities that I embody?”

Lemons’ lens doesn’t search for the shock factor, but seeks – and in fact, demands – thoughtful, in-depth engagement with his work. To an admirer, it’s fascinating how his deeply personal point of view can translate into something so much larger. That same rawness with which he captures subjects who were once strangers in the most intimate of moments, is also a refreshing depiction of queerness and Blackness in all its forms.

“Photography for me has always been a way to preserve my own memory,” says Lemons. But seeing his artwork evolve over the years reflects like a running document of the times we’re living in. Look at the optimism of 2017’s “Glitterboy”, a glowing series of portraits where men proudly wear glittery make-up – captured right after Barack Obama’s presidency, when Lemons was just 19. “I feel so much younger when I look at ‘Glitterboy’,” he says. “I grew up in the Obama era, a young, Black gay man, just being like, ‘I can do whatever I want because my president is Black.’ I felt joyous.”

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Fresh on the heels of Trump-era chaos, the pandemic and the George Floyd protests, “Quiladelphia” is a more mature and somewhat sombre chapter of Lemons’ work. “With ‘Quiladelphia’ you see me grow up,” he says – a now 26-year-old’s perspective. “It’s a documentation of my queer journey and becoming. Now, when I think about my photography, I think about preservation of queer identity. There’s a tenderness that remains but you start to see me really question the world, how the world sees me and how I want to be perceived.”

Lemons speaks with the conviction of a socially conscious, politically focused member of Gen Z. “I think about people who really became pioneers of New Queer Cinema, and I’m bringing those undertones into my practice,” he says. “How do I become a part of that canon of people that just kept pushing queerness to the forefront?”

Lemons’ imagery indicates maturity beyond his years. Reflecting again on the buzz generated by his Vanity Fair cover, Lemons says, “It’s systemic racism on a maximum level when it comes to being a photographer, because a lot of these covers were only shot by white men before. For me, that cover was just a moment where I was like, this is the beginning. I still have to work my a** off because I know the colour of my skin. I know how I’m gonna be treated, no matter if this should be a moment.”

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Lemons’ aim is to make images that not only challenge views of gender, sexuality and race, but make us think about how those views came to be. “I definitely could’ve played it safe with ‘Quiladelphia’,” he says. “But I have my entire life to rebound from any situation that I’m ever in. If I do this, something that is so controversial that could blacklist me, then I’ll just spend the next part of my life figuring out how to get back on the good side,” he laughs. “But I’m not gonna stop making the work.”

“I have to take a moment to process my own celebrity,” Lemons muses. “It’s been unnerving to not know what’ll happen next in the sense of, ‘what will they say?’ The idea of infamy, it’s not as damning as it once was. So why not be ballsy?”

This is, after all, a photographer who commands respect. “Fame is very fleeting,” Lemons says, “but respect is forever.”

The seven-seat chef’s counter looks into the kitchen proper.

Justin De Souza

It speaks volumes that the kitchen takes up almost a third of the restaurant. There are, remarkably, only 35 seats available here. Twenty-eight are spread across eight tables on the ground floor and exclusively available to reserve via phone, while upstairs, at the chef’s counter, seven have been set aside for walk-ins. Naturally, no expense has been spared when it comes to the décor; even the lighting has been carefully installed so as not to cast shadows on tables, while the serving station has been carved in Italy from a 1,800kg piece of Devon stone, and a hand-painted mosaic inspired by the works of Guido Mocafico adorns the floor upstairs. Jayasekara and Jefferies’s joint masterpiece, however, might well be the 14-seat private dining room, complete with gold latticework and a Saracen fireplace.

As for The Cocochine’s menu: it will be ingredient led and served à la carte, with a single service each for lunch and dinner. Tellingly, Jayasekara toured more than 25 countries to set up his network of suppliers: think reindeer and cloudberries from Norway; single-origin chocolate via a Suffolk specialist; tuna and mirin from Tokyo; and coconut cream from – where else? – Sri Lanka. “Every dish will be a signature dish,” Jayasekara tells me when I ask if there’s any item on the menu that he’s particularly excited about, although he admits to a certain fondness for a dessert juxtaposing caviar and chocolate, which he considers a revelatory pairing. “A successful restaurant is always a question of harmony – in terms of ingredients, in terms of partners, in terms of suppliers,” he muses. “Back of house and front of house. When all of those come together, you have a fantastic marriage. Otherwise, it’s a divorce every night.”

Latest News in Black Art features updates and developments in the world of art and related culture

AWARDS & HONORS

Ingrid Pollard Wins Hasselblad Photography Award
The Hasselblad Foundation announced British photographer Ingrid Pollard is the recipient of the 2024 Hasselblad Award, one of the top photography prizes in the world. The honor includes a cash award of SEK 2,000,000 (nearly US $200,000), a gold medal, and a Hasselblad camera. Pollard “uses photography to question deeply engrained social and cultural constructs behind race, identity, community, and gender. Her work reveals subtle and starkly evident injustices through her engagement with the British landscape, iconography, and identity, as well as challenging the medium of photography and its history.” In 2022, Pollard was nominated for the Turner Prize. She was born in Guyana, grew up in London, and is now based in Northumberland, Northeast England. Pollard will be honored at an Oct. 11 ceremony in Gothenburg, Sweden. An exhibition of her work opens the same day at the Hasselblad Center, accompanied by a new publication. (3/8) | More

Amina Agueznay Wins South African Art Prize
Norval Foundation and The Sovereign Art Foundation (SAF) announced Amina Agueznay is the grand prize winner of the 2024 Norval Sovereign African Art Prize. “I’m over the moon and honored more than anything else,” Agueznay said. The Moroccan-born multi-media artist earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. Her work will be on view through May 12, along with contributions by the other finalists, in a group exhibition at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa. The honor includes a $35,000 prize and the opportunity to present a solo exhibition at the Norval Foundation. (2/19) | CNN

ALBERTA WHITTLE, “Genealogies of Chosen Family (Sekai Machache),” 2024 (acrylic with water from the Osun River, Nigeria, on linen, painted wooden frame with fretwork, 68 7/8 x 62 1/2 x 2 3/8 inches / 174.9 x 158.8 x 6 cm). | © Alberta Whittle, Courtesy the artist and Regen Projects

REPRESENTATION

Alberta Whittle Joins Regen Projects
Regen Projects in Los Angeles announced its representation of Alberta Whittle. Her multidisciplinary practice is “motivated by the desire to manifest self-compassion and collective care as key methods in battling anti-Blackness.” She works across sculpture, drawing, digital collage, film, performance, and writing. “Alberta Whittle: Learning a new punctuation for hope in times of disaster,” her inaugural exhibition with the gallery, opened March 16. The show features “Lagareh – The Last Born” (2022), a single-channel video, with a series of paintings and sculpture. Born in Barbados, Whittle is based in Glasgow, Scotland. She represented Scotland at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022. (2/14)| More

Mendes Wood Represents Julien Creuzet
Mendes Wood DM added French artist and poet Julien Creuzet (right) to its roster. In April, Creuzet is representing France with a solo exhibition at the 60th Venice Biennale. He produces sculpture, installations, and textual interventions that explore his “diasporic experience. Inspired by the poetic and philosophical reflections of Aimé Césaire and Édouard Glissant on creolization and migration, Creuzet’s work focuses on the troubled intersection of the history of Martinique and the events of European modernity.” Mendes Wood was founded in São Paulo, Brazil, and has locations in New York, Brussels, and Paris. Creuzet’s first solo exhibition with the gallery will be on view in Brussels in 2025. He also works with Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York and Document Space in Chicago. (2/23) | Artdaily

Mendes Wood Adds Coco Fusco
New York-based, Cuban-American artist Coco Fusco joined Mendes Wood DM. Over the past three decades, her research-based practice has focused on “the complexities of race, colonialism, exile, gender, identity, and the shaping of possible new societies.” Fusco works across performance, video, exhibition practice, archival research, and formal writings. A retrospective of the artist, “Tomorrow, I Will Become an Island” (2023) was presented at the KW Institute of Contemporary Art in Berlin, Germany. In 2025, the show travels to the MACBA in Barcelona, Spain. Her video installation “Coco Fusco: Your Eyes Will Be an Empty Word” is currently on view at Cal State Fullerton’s Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, Calif. Mendes Wood was founded in São Paulo, Brazil, and has locations in New York, Brussels, and Paris. Last fall, the gallery presented “With Others in Mind,” Fusco’s first solo exhibition in São Paulo. (2/21) | More

IMAGE: Above right, Julien Creuzet. | Photo by Virginie Ribaut

APPOINTMENTS

New CEO at Black Museum Association
Vedet Coleman-Robinson was promoted to president and CEO of the Association of African American Museums (AAAM), a member organization that supports museums and individual professionals focused on African and African American art, history, and culture. Before accepting a staff role, Coleman-Robinson served on AAAM’s membership committee. Previously, she spent 11 years at the National Park Service focusing on grant programs for the State, Tribal, Local, Plans & Grants Division and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. (3/26) | More

Heckscher Museum Hires New Operations Director
The Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, N.Y., appointed Evan Waddy-Farr to the newly created role of director of operations and strategic initiatives. Waddy-Farr is a Morehouse alum who brings more than a dozen years of experience, including nonprofit operations and development, project management, grant writing, and a background in K-12 teaching and working with youth. Previously, he was director of curriculum and director of development at 4th Family Inc., in Albany, N.Y., a nonprofit focused on teen mentorship. He started at the museum in January. (2/9) | More

DESIGN

Cookware by Chef Eric Adjepong at Crate & Barrel
Chef Eric Adjepong has a new collaboration with Crate & Barrel, a 60-piece collection featuring cookware, serveware, glassware, textiles, and decor. The designs are inspired by his Ghanaian heritage and New York City, where he was born and raised. The selections include a large-sized ridged wood mortar and pestle (asanka); jewel-toned, organic-shaped dinnerware; and metal trivets in the form of a Sankofa bird and the Nea Onnim symbol. Adjepong is an alum of Top Chef season 16 and has become a regular on the Food Network, competing on “Tournament of Champions,” hosting “Alex vs. America,” co-starring on “Beachside Brawl,” and recently launching a new show, “Wildcard Kitchen.” He is the author of the children’s book “Sankofa: A Culinary Story of Resilience and Belonging” and his first cookbook coming soon. (3/21) | More

FILM

Film Directors Buy Westwood Movie Theater
A diverse group of 36 film directors, including Gina Prince-Bythewood, Steven Spielberg, and Bradley Cooper, purchased a Los Angeles movie theater that has hosted countless premieres over the decades. Jason Reitman led the acquisition of the Village Theater in the Westwood village community adjacent to UCLA. The historic theater first opened in 1931 and last summer was put on the market for $12 million. The directors acted to save the theater out of concern that the big-screen moviegoing experience is in jeopardy and to prevent the landmark from potentially being torn down and replaced by new development. Rian Johnson, Guillermo Del Toro, Christopher Nolan, Lulu Wang, Alfonso Cuarón, and Justin Lin, are also among the directors involved. “Once renovated, the Village Theater will showcase a mixture of first-run films and repertory programming curated by the group,” according to the report. “The collective also intends to keep the theater open while plans for a restaurant, bar and gallery are finalized.” (2/21) | New York Times

Travis Kelce is Co-Producing Basquiat Documentary
“Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure,” a sprawling exhibition of rarely seen works by Jean-Michel Basquiat was organized by the artist’s estate. The show opened in New York in 2022, traveled to Los Angeles, and was accompanied by a catalog. Now a feature documentary of the same name is underway with Boardwalk Pictures and Quinn Wilson, Lizzo’s former creative director. NFL star Travis Kelce is among the producers. He is a tight end on the Kansas City Chiefs, who won the Super Bowl last month. The Basquiat project is Kelce’s second foray into the film world following his executive producer role on “My Dead Friend Zoe.” The dark comedy cost less than $10 million to make and was the first film financed with renewable energy tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act. “King Pleasure” has been in the works since summer 2023. (2/13) | Variety

MORE NEWS

Oprah’s WeightWatchers Stock Goes to Smithsonian Museum
Oprah Winfrey announced she is leaving the board of directors of WeightWatchers International and donating her WW shares to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C. She had served on the WW board since 2015 and appeared in commercials for the weight loss and weight management company. The billionaire media mogul held 1.1 million shares of WW, making her the largest individual stakeholder, owning 1.43 percent of the company. The stake was worth about $3.18 million at the time of the announcement, according to reports. She will continue to collaborate with the company and “intends to donate the proceeds from any future exercises of her WW stock options to NMAAHC.” Winfrey is an advisory council member, founding supporter, and the largest donor to the Smithsonian museum. Her previous gifts total $13 million. (2/28) | More
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