Young Rising: Cultural Findings in the African Urban Landscape

• Photographer
  Betty Press, United States
• Studio
  Betty Press Photographer
• Website
  https://www.bettypress.com/
• Instagram
  @bettypress

Young Rising: Cultural Findings in the African Urban landscape

The brightest sign of hope in many African cities is seen in the creative signage found in the urban
environment including advertisements, graffiti, and even wearable art.
The advertising signs, often hand painted, might be on buildings, kiosks, buses, and even on
wheelbarrows. The sign painting is mainly used to advertise services offered by various small businesses,
such as hairdressing, tailoring, cell phone charging and video games. The designs and slogans are drawn
from traditional as well as contemporary pop culture. Primary colors are used; designs are bold and
simple, and the paint is whatever is available, such as house paint. The sign painters are mostly self-
taught and like to sign their work.

This popular artwork is found almost everywhere and livens up what would otherwise
be a shabby environment of the third world cities. Where in most of the developed
world signs often are mass-produced, these hand-created signs are refreshing to
see.

With these photographs I document how young Africans use language and symbols to
define themselves and how in this way we understand them better. It is interesting to
see what names they choose for their businesses, what they like to wear, and the kind
of graffiti they paint on the walls. I spent hours walking the streets in Freetown,
Monrovia, Accra, Nairobi looking for these signs.

Young people express themselves in what they choose to wear. Since they like to look
and dress well they either go to the local tailor or scour the used clothes markets to
find stylish clothes.Young people seek out T-shirts with interesting designs and
slogans like “cheeky,” “perfect angel” or those showing hip-hop singers like Tupac or
Eminem.

It is a testament to young people and the universal desire to express themselves..

Betty Press, an adjunct Professor of Photography at the University of Southern Mississippi, has been photographing Mississippi for the past 10 years. Her latest project Finding Mississippi has been widely exhibited and included in many public as well as private collections.

She is well known for her photographs taken in Africa where she lived and worked for many years. She published an award winning photobook in 2011, I Am Because We Are: African Wisdom in Image and Proverb.

In 2019 she returned to Kenya to continue on-going projects documenting urban culture and social injustice.

Awards Selected GRANTS AND AWARDS
2020 Eyes on Main Street, 6th Ed. 100 photographers from around the world, Wilson, North Carolina Curated by Jerome De Perlinghi By invitation.
2019 Bronze award Finding Mississippi, BIFA Budapest International Foto Awards
2019 ‘Cakewalk, Black Hawk, Mississippi’ is in New Symphony of Time, Mississippi Museum of Art Galleries featuring selected works from the permanent collection.
2019 Best Local Instagrammer, Best of the Pine Belt, Signature Magazine, Hattiesburg, Mississippi
2019 Honorable Mention, Greenville Arts Council Invitational
2019 High Achievement Award, 45th Annual Bi-State Juried Exhibition Meridian Museum of Art
2019 Visual Artist Fellowship Grant. Mississippi Arts Commission
2018 Best of Show, South Mississippi Arts Association, Hattiesburg, Mississippi,
2018 Best of Show, Cotton District Festival Art Exhibition, Starkville, Mississippi
2017 Juror’s Award Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO.
Juror Kat Kiernan of Don’t Take Pictures
2016 Juror’s Award A Sense of Place PhotoPlace Gallery, Vermont Juror Jane Fulton Alt
2016 9th Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers, Juror Andréa Holzherr,Magnum Photos Winner of the Series Cityscapes and Street Photography category Young Rising: Changing the African Urban Landscape
2016 Director's Award, "Old" A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, Texas Amanda Smith and Kevin Tully
2015 Ones To Watch, Atlanta Celebrates Photography Annual gala
2013 Visual Artist Fellowship Grant. Mississippi Arts Commission
2012 Photography award, Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters

PUBLICATIONS
Don’t Take Pictures, Issue 14 2020 10 Years in Africa by Roula Seikaly Editor Kat Kiernan
iLeGaLiT, Slovakia online magazine, No.11/2019 Finding Mississippi
Doc! Photo Magazine More Than Meets the Eye Mississippi Portfolio Fall 2018 Editor Grzegorz Kosmala
Shots Magazine Portfolio Issue 134, Editor: Russell Joslin Winter 2017