love is the answer, whatever the question

A cinematic story of love, style, courage, family and friendship, shot by Oliver Hadlee Pearch and Carlos Nazario on the streets of Brooklyn, capturing our cover star Adesuwa Aighewi.

main pic

Adesuwa wears dress Givenchy. Earrings Alexander McQueen.

Jan wears coat and trousers MSGM. Shirt Jil Sander. Belt Giorgio Armani. Jewellery model’s own. Shoes Balenciaga.

Sergeulen wears dress Marc Jacobs.

Yimilya wears dress Chanel. Shoes model’s own. Chad wears suit and belt Fendi. Blazer (worn underneath) Topman. Shoes Hermès. Taira wears dress Jacquemus. Jewellery model’s own. Shoes Clergerie. Kirtisha all clothing and shoes Prada. Jewellery model’s own.

SDM Magazine Summer Issue #22

SDM Magazine Summer Issue 2018 Issue #22

By SDM Media in Swagga Digital Magazine

88 pages, published 8/5/2018

Summer Issue 2018 Bringing The Heat

Beyoncé-Approved Tyler Mitchell Is The First Black Photographer To Shoot A Vogue Cover

Tyler Mitchell, a 23-year-old artist from Atlanta, will be the first black photographer to shoot a cover for Vogue in the magazine’s 126-year history. Beyoncé chose Mitchell to photograph her upcoming September issue cover, Yashar Ali reported for HuffPost on Monday. She obtained full control over the cover from Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, a source told HuffPost. “The reason a 23-year-old black photographer is photographing Beyoncé for the cover of Vogue is because Beyoncé used her power and influence to get him that assignment,” the source said. Mitchell, a New York University graduate, quickly became a recognized name in the art world through his work in Cuba and his featured work on Instagram. His more than 40,000 Instagram followers include celebrities like Rose McGowan and Naomi Campbell.

The New York Times’ “Up Next” series featured Mitchell in December.

“I depict black people and people of color in a really real and pure way,” he told the Times. “There is an honest gaze to my photos.” The 23-year-old first gained attention in 2015 with his self-published book of photos, El Paquete, which focused on Cuban skate culture and architecture. Mitchell captured the book’s 108 photos while in Cuba for six weeks as part of a documentary photography program, according to the Times. Mitchell’s work has appeared in other magazines, such as Teen Vogue’s March for Our Lives feature. He photographed gun reform activist Nza-Ari Khepra with Parkland shooting survivors Emma Gonzalez, Sarah Chadwick and Jaclyn Corin for Teen Vogue’s piece on the #NeverAgain gun control movement.

The 23-year-old has also shot covers for Fader and Office Magazine.

He has also directed film projects for clients such as Marc Jacobs and Ray-Ban. Mitchell told The New York Times in December that he was editing a three-screen film project he shot with a 35-millimeter camera on how race affects adolescents.

The 23-year-old has also shot covers for Fader and Office Magazine.

Lupita Nyong’o Criticizes Magazine’s Altered Image of Her Hair

The Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o has spoken over the years about her struggles to learn to love her hair and skin color. She was taunted as a young girl for her “night-shaded skin,” she has said. She once felt “unbeautiful.”Finally, Ms. Nyong’o said she realized that beauty was not a thing that she could acquire or change. “It was something that I just had to be,” she said at a Black Women in Hollywood luncheon in 2014.

But now, at 34, Ms. Nyong’o has yet again found herself defending that beauty.On the cover of its November issue, the magazine Grazia UK featured an altered image of Ms. Nyong’o. Gone is her mass of curly black hair, held in a thick ponytail at the back of her neck in the original photograph.

grazia

On Instagram, in a post that was widely viewed and shared, Ms. Nyong’o rejected the magazine’s use of the image.

As I have made clear so often in the past with every fiber of my being, I embrace my natural heritage and despite having grown up thinking light skin and straight, silky hair were the standards of beauty, I now know that my dark skin and kinky, coily hair are beautiful too.

Being featured on the cover of a magazine fulfills me as it is an opportunity to show other dark, kinky-haired people, and particularly our children, that they are beautiful just the way they are.

I am disappointed that @graziauk invited me to be on their cover and then edited out and smoothed my hair to fit their notion of what beautiful hair looks like. Had I been consulted, I would have explained that I cannot support or condone the omission of what is my native heritage with the intention that they appreciate that there is still a very long way to go to combat the unconscious prejudice against black women’s complexion, hair style and texture.

Ms. Nyong’o affixed the hashtag #dtmh, the acronym for the song “Don’t Touch My Hair,” by Solange Knowles. The London Evening Standard magazine apologized to Ms. Knowles last month for removing a significant portion of her hair from an image that appeared on the cover of its October edition.

In September, the hip-hop artist Nicki Minaj called out magazines for altering her hair while not doing the same to women of other races. “For years, fashion mags would change my hair for their covers but allow women of a diff race to wear the exact style on the cover,” she said on Twitter.

On Friday, Grazia magazine issued a statement apologizing to Ms. Nyong’o but deflecting blame for the image alteration.