Cascade
Photographer/Creative Director/Interviewer
“Cascade”2. a process whereby something, typically information or knowledge, is successively passed on.
"the greater the number of people who are well briefed, the wider the cascade effect"At its core,
Cascade is reference material for BIPOC in creative spaces. It focuses on bolstering the amount of representation of BIPOC in the arts through photographs and interviews. Articles with interviews give artists across various mediums the space to speak candidly about their experiences in their relative fields- while the editorials work towards filling the gap of representation in the realm of creative practices.
Cascade was made possible with the support of the
Toronto Arts Council.Cascade is best viewed on desktop.
Gyimah Gariba : Visual Artist
Photography : Othello Grey
︎︎
The
The final entry into Cascade.
I’ll keep this short and try to close off Cascade as a photographer and not a journalist lol. With that being said, words alone aren’t enough to describe what Gyimah does. His work is an amalgamation of the endless layers of Black identity in which he bends and explores whatever stylistic approach he deems fit at the time. From images surrounding exploration of self, sexuality, religion, sports, Black joy, Black pain to an entire kids show with characters inspired by his siblings- there’s no way to guess what he’ll do next.
I first came across Gyimah’s work through a tumblr repost by Virgil of a Pyrex illustration he did at the time, near the end of tumblr’s life span- which is now maybe 7 years ago? I’m not sure. We connected through whatever social media people used back then, I proposed a project where we collaborated with photo and illustration (lol I had no idea what I was trying to accomplish but I wanted to work together). I took some really bad photos of him, he did an amazing illustration of me and we went back and forth with some ideas that never really came to fruition.
The predominantly white art world has never been a kind place or an easy place to navigate, so it’s always a blessing to find Black artists that have broken barriers to any extent. Even after world shifts and uprisings, there’s still a glaring lack of representation. Which is why (beyond being a friend of mine) I wanted to include Gyimah in this project.
Akua : Musician, Doula
Photography/Words : Othello Grey