Ken KAMARA c/o BLOSSOM MGMT

Additional Info // about Ken KAMARA

ABOUT
Ken Kamara is a Berlin based English artist whose chosen mediums are photography and film. His aesthetic concentrates on the use of deadpan portraits made with an analogue camera from 1956. At the core of his artistic practice is the direct engagement with each individual, which encourages the audience to establish a personal and meaningful connection with his portraits. His work is being employed in social and commercial campaigns. He assisted Rankin for two years and completed his Bachelor of Photography at the University of East London.

'In a world of screens such as the one, we live in today. Making eye contact is something we are less accustomed to. We shy away from that moment of recognition – of the other's presence, of our existence – that is at the core and marks the very beginning of any authentic human relationship.

Still, when our eyes meet, we allow for a revelation to happen: in a speechless dialogue that lasts the time of a glance, we accept to uncover who we indeed are, as we welcome a truth that spreads from the eyes of the person standing before us, regardless of their name, where they live, what they have done or are about to do.

With my portraits collection, I will be taking my audience on a journey back to the brief moment, where my eyes met with those portrayed, in some ways acting as a conduit while at the same time finding a way of preventing myself from being an obstruction to the audience. By experiencing the same intimate face-to-face encounters through the photographs in a display, the audience has the chance to engage in a similar yet new dialogue with the faces of the people standing before them.

Our diversity is what brings us together. In searching for commonalities, I observe endless individualities and see endless commonalities within each individual, highlighted by the intimate portraits I take with an analog camera from 1956.

In every encounter there is a dialogue without words creating an understated, engaging, direct yet vulnerable sense of each person. Behind the outcome of the work is the interest of people and, through them, of trends, movements, protests, individual and group dynamics that are part of our being human.'