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MONGEZI’S PHOTO ATTRACTS AFROPUNK

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 MBABANE – Trending internationally. As if trending in local entertainment and media spaces was not enough, photographer Mongezi Mkhabela’s photo grabbed the attention of international event and concert maestro Afropunk. 


Local Instagram and Twitter users went into a frenzy when the entertainment and events hub shared the pictures on their Instagram page on Friday afternoon.


Debut


The Afropunk Festival is an annual arts festival that features live music, film, fashion, and art produced by black artists. The festival made its first debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2005, and has since expanded to other parts of the world.


Speaking to the Entertainment Desk, Mkhabela said the photoshoot was really amazing as the environment which they did it in was fun and filled with lots of good energy.


“The shoot was initially one that Will Brown and I decided together as a way of strengthening each other’s weaknesses, with us also sharing our individuality on how we wanted to execute the shoot,” he said.
Not only was the photograph noticed by AfroPunk, but the photographer also revealed that a French blog named Fashiz Black also noticed their work and posted it on their Instagram, which according to Mkhabela was humbling.


“I felt like the message I was trying to convey as an artist was well received, since my initial reason for the photoshoot was to encourage all the melanin queens to feel comfortable in their own skin, to embrace it and forget about the standards set out by society,” he said.
Just last week, Eswatini was celebrating Will Brown, whose photograph grabbed the attention of international supermodel, Naomi Campbell through the Vogue challenge, which took over social media in the past couple of weeks.


Attention


Brown’s photograph did not only attract the likes of Campbell but the giant publication as well.
Mkhabela gushingly mentioned that this would open doors that he could only imagine for the time being. 

The self-taught photographer, who has been taking pictures for over five years shared that he could not believe his work would go international although parts of his instincts wanted that.  Celebratory messages were shared by Instagram and Twitter users, who wished both the model, Sara Vost and Simelane a blossoming career and remind them of how far they had come with their crafts.


 Speaking to Vost, she could not hide her excitement as she said she could not believe the response from the public as it was quite overwhelming. Vost shared that the responses from locals made her realise the amount of support she had from emaSwati.


Born in South Sudan and having lived in the country for almost all her life, she said it really warmed her heart and motivated her to do more magical stuff that was out of this world. Vost also said being recognised internationally made her realise her dreams of becoming a model.


Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture (ENCAC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Stanley Dlamini encouraged such efforts by the local artists to represent the country on international platforms during the coronavirus pandemic which had forced lockdown regulations in the arts industry.

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