Rising Photographer Olivia Rose Breaks Racial Stereotypes

Olivia Rose has been photographing young men who are black or mixed race in a way that represents them as they really are without fetishising or stereotyping them.

Based in London Rose is aware of herself as a middle class white woman and she makes a point of connecting with the men she photographs, engaging with them, eating with them, meeting their family and basically entering their world.This body of work photographing young men of this specific racial demographic she has entitled ‘boys’. She has recently released a new film titled ‘Unity’ which explores ideas of boyhood and manhood.

By photographing black men, Rose intends for the viewer to ‘unlearn’ stereotypes, showing different sides to black masculinity, instead of one polarised view. Rose challenges the prejudices of white viewers by noticing nuances, personalities and a new mindful view of the world.

Rose studied at Central Saint Martin and then studied Fashion Photography at London College of Fashion where she began to develop her current style.

“At the time I was shooting a portrait series of my gay friends on Polaroids and my tutor told me to stop trying to put myself into that box, and that I was shooting fashion, even though I didn’t realise it. And as soon as he said that, I sort of took that idea of creating bodies of work of different kinds of people and I ran with it. So, for the last ten years, I’ve been on a one-woman mission around the globe photographing different demographics and sub-cultures” said Rose.

Rose is sensitive to her subject and her awareness that she is an outsider to the sub culture she is photographing. She brings this awareness and sensitivity to the subject and it comes out in her images.

“It all started with a boy called Jay who I met when I was living in Islington. Him and his brother showed up at my house to sell us a score of weed and they were just so beautiful that I asked them if we could do a portrait session. When we did it, I could tell Jay was really into the camera so on a whim, I asked him if he wanted to learn. He said yes and we ended up starting this amazing photographer-muse relationship. He was my first assistant for years after that. I’ve learned more from the boys I’ve met along the way than they could ever have learned from me – it was loving them, getting to know their families and being integrated into their lives, that made me question everything I knew about my white, middle-class world” said Rose.

Rose admits that when she started out the intention behind photographing black and mixed raced men was purely for the aesthetic value, against what she wants to do today.

“I started off by fetishising black masculinity – I have to hold my hands up and admit to that, no matter how negative or embarrassing… With retrospect, a lot of soul searching and a long process of ‘unlearning,’ I now know that my work is about representing the unrepresented, especially within fashion –I feel like my work is as much about rejecting the white male face as it is about picturing the black male face – in doing that, I think my work opens a discussion, especially among white people, who often view my portraits with eyes already loaded with negative ideas or stereotypes” Rose says

Rose talks about the complicated nature of taking photographs which will always show some kind of aesthetic without over emphasising the aesthetic as the purpose for photographing the subject.

“Well nowadays, I’m aware that I don’t want to fetishise them. It’s a really hard line to tow, because a certain degree of what you do as a photographer is essentially always going to be about the aesthetic appreciation of what you’re photographing. But for me it’s really about intention, being aware of what you’re doing and how your images are going to be shown. That’s why I’m so picky about my outlets – because I want the viewer to be somebody who can understand what I’m saying on a deeper level rather than “these are hot black men” says Rose.

Rose has worked for i-D, Clash and has collaborated with photographer Hattie Collins on a book called This is Grime which is due out in September 2016. She has also photographed Drake.

“I hear someone shuffle into the room, look up briefly, it’s Drake, continue selfie-ing for a sec until it hits me. OMFG that’s Drake. I stood up dead straight and the only words I could find were (a v. high pitched) ‘Oh. Hello Drake!’ Luckily he found me funny, or endearing, or maybe he was just afraid of the crazy lady, but he posed for some (and I shit you not I actually said this) ‘piccies’. CRINGE” said Rose.

The work of Olivia Rose is important, because it aims to change the way viewers see black and mixed race men through photography. She clearly takes her genre seriously, talking honestly about her initial intentions to portray the aesthetics of black and mixed race men that grew into something more, something with social and political purpose. These images can change the way the white viewers gaze see race because we are not looking at the token black guy as is so often portrayed in TV. Instead we see a many different people within these sub cultures breaking stereotypes.