Amarachi Nwosu (; born 29 September 1994) , is a Nigerian-American photographer, visual artist, and filmmaker currently based in New York City. She is also the founder of Melanin Unscripted, a creative platform and agency which aims to dismantle stereotypes and blur cultural lines by exposing complex identities and cultures around the world. Her debut documentary "Black in Tokyo" premiered at the

International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP) is a photography museum and school at 84 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. ICP's photographic collection, reading room, and archives are at Mana Contemporary in Jer ...

at the ICP Museum in New York City in 2017. She also screened the film in Tokyo, Japan at Ultra Super New Gallery in

Harajuku is a district in Shibuya, Tokyo. Harajuku is the common name given to a geographic area spreading from Harajuku Station to Omotesandō, Tokyo, Omotesando, corresponding on official maps of Shibuya, Tokyo, Shibuya ward as Jingūmae 1 Japanese a ...

Personal life

Born to Nigerian

Igbo Igbo may refer to: * Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria * Igbo language, their language * anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria See also * Ibo (disambiguation) * Igbo mythology * Igbo music * Igbo art * * Igbo-Ukwu, a t ...

parents,

Itsekiri The Itsekiri (also called the Isekiri, ''iJekri'', ''Itsekri'', ''Ishekiri'', or Itsekhiri) are an ethnic group who mainly inhabit Nigeria's Niger Delta area. They speak a Yoruboid languages, Yoruboid language and can be found in Ondo State, Ondo ...

and Ghanaian heritage, Nwosu grew up in

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

and lived some of her early years in

Port Harcourt Port Harcourt (Pidgin: ''Po-ta-kot or Pi-ta-kwa)'' is the capital and largest city of Rivers State in Nigeria. It is the fifth most populous city in Nigeria after Lagos, Kano, Ibadan and Benin. It lies along the Bonny River and is locate ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Nwosu went to school at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

but moved to Tokyo during her junior year after winning six scholarships to study a year abroad as an international student, where she pursued a degree in International Communications. She finished her degree in the US and returned to Tokyo to learn Japanese and work as a full-time creative, where she was part of the launch of

Highsnobiety ''Highsnobiety'' is a global fashion and lifestyle media brand founded in 2005 by David Fischer. The youth-focused company is difficult to pigeonhole, as it straddles the line between a media company that reviews fashion and lifestyle products, ...

in Japan and worked with clients like Beats and

Sony Music Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is opera ...

Career

She shot a fashion story, ‘Sankofa’ at the

Cape Coast Castle Cape Coast Castle () is one of about forty slave fort, "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast (region), Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by European traders. It was originally a Portuguese "feitoria" or Factory ( ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

for

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** '' Vogue Adria'', a fashion magazine for former Yugoslav countries ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ' ...

. Activist

Malala Yousafzai Malala Yousafzai (; , pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997) is a Pakistani female education activist, film and television producer, and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, ...

, commissioned her to document her visit to Tokyo in 2019. Other powerful figures she's shadowed and shot include supermodel

Naomi Campbell Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is a British supermodel. Beginning her career at the age of eight, Campbell was one of six models of her generation declared supermodels by the fashion industry and the international press. She was th ...

during her trip to Lagos, Nigeria and Ebonee Davi.s She has also directed short films on the power of women in sports for companies like

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...

in Nigeria. Nwosu has been involved in pushing the

Afrobeats Afrobeats, not to be confused with Afrobeat or Afroswing, is an umbrella term to describe popular music from West Africa and the diaspora that initially developed in Ghana, Nigeria, and the UK in the 2000s and 2010s. Afrobeats is less of a st ...

and afrofusion sound as a visual artist, music journalist, creative director and brand manager. She has worked with artists like

Mr Eazi Oluwatosin Oluwole Ajibade (born 19 July 1991), better known by his stage name Mr Eazi, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, and record executive. He is the pioneer of Banku music, a fusion of sound he describes as a mixture of Ghanaian highlife a ...

, Yxng Bane,

Nonso Amadi Chinonso Obinna Amadi (born September 1, 1995) is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and music producer. He is a self-taught songwriter and music producer who embarked on his music career in 2012, while at Covenant University, where he studied chemical ...

, Odunsi The Engine, Santi,

Kwesi Arthur Emmanuel Kwesi Danso Arthur (born 18 December 1994), known professionally as Kwesi Arthur, is a Ghanaian rapper, singer and songwriter from Tema. He rose to fame in 2017 with the hit single "Grind Day", which received widespread acclaim, a co-s ...

and

Tobi Lou Tobi Adeyemi (born November 3, 1988), known professionally as Tobi Lou (stylized in lower case), is a Nigerian-American singer, songwriter, rapper and record producer. Early life Tobi Adeyemi was born in Lagos and raised in Chicago. He attended ...

. She also worked as the tour photographer for

Childish Gambino Donald McKinley Glover Jr. (; born September 25, 1983), also known by his musical stage name Childish Gambino (), is an American actor, comedian, musician, and filmmaker. While he studied at New York University and after working in Derrick ...

during his 2018 ‘This is America’ tour. In 2018, she directed the launch of

Budweiser Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, a brand of Belgian company AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States. Budweiser is a filte ...

in Nigeria through their Budx platform by curating the homecoming exhibition for Nigerian-American Hip Hop documentarian Chi Modu within her Melanin Unscripted platform as a way to bridge the golden era of Hip Hop in America and the current space of Hip Hop in Nigeria. The event was a two-day exhibition, workshop, panel, concert and party. She has also bridged music and youth culture in Japan, where she shot the first feature for

The Fader ''The Fader'' is a magazine established in 1999 as an outlet for Cornerstone Agency, a marketing and public relations firm established by Rob Stone and Jon Cohen. The magazine covers music, style and culture. History and work It is owned by T ...

highlighting the contemporary music scene in Tokyo and the first African woman to appear on Adidas Tokyo's Instagram page as a way to highlight diversity in Japan.

Social media and advocacy

In 2017, Nwosu tweeted about the plagiarism and cultural appropriation of African prints by British designer

Stella McCartney Stella Nina McCartney (born 13 September 1971) is an English fashion designer. She is a daughter of English singer-songwriter Paul McCartney and American photographer and animals rights activist Linda McCartney. Like her parents, McCartney is ...

during its showcase at

Paris Fashion Week Paris Fashion Week (, commonly ) is a series of designer presentations held semi-annually in Paris, France, with spring/summer and autumn/winter events held each year. Dates are determined by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. Pa ...

, sparking an outrage on the social media platform. OkayAfrica called it "Cultural Colonialism" and in a viral tweet, she bemoaned the use of African designs by the brand "but using only one African model on her runway". Despite backlash, McCartney failed to apologize and issued a statement to Fashionista that gave credit to textile brand

Vlisco The Vlisco Group designs, produces and distributes fashion fabrics, especially of the African wax print style, for the West and Central African market and African consumers in global metropolitan cities. Founded in Helmond, the Netherlands, in 18 ...

in the Netherlands rather than indigenous African women. “The prints were about celebrating a unique textile craftsmanship, its culture and highlighting its heritage. We designed the prints in collaboration with Vlisco in the Netherlands, the company that has been creating unique Real Dutch Wax fabrics in Holland since 1846 and helps maintain its heritage." it wrote.

Notable mentions

OkayAfrica OkayAfrica (stylized as okayafrica) is a digital media platform dedicated to African culture, music and politics. Founded in 2011 by Vanessa Wruble and Ginny Suss as a sister site to The Roots frontman Questlove's Okayplayer, the site has become ...

named Nwosu in their 2019 100 Women campaign to celebrate Women's History Month.

References

External links

amarachinwosu.comInternational Center of PhotographyNwosu/ IMDb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nwosu, Amarachi Living people Nigerian women photographers Igbo people American people of Igbo descent 1994 births American people of Ghanaian descent Nigerian people of Ghanaian descent 21st-century American photographers Filmmakers from New York (state) Photographers from New York City Temple University alumni Photographers from Washington (state) 21st-century American women photographers American artists of Nigerian descent