SEYE ISIKALU: REPRESENTATION MATTERS.

By Stephanie Amata.

Seye Isikalu's Ocean (2016) at Lagos Photo Festival. 

I had the pleasure of interviewing photographer and filmmaker, Seye Isikalu on a sunny day in London. A rarity because London has been doomed to greyness and Isikalu isn't quick to hand out interviews.  I was eager to pick his brain and bring to light the motivations behind some of his projects especially his ongoing Skinny Jeans Film, a long-term project consisting of smaller ones discussing the black male experience from refreshingly unique angles.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Seye Isikalu and I’m a London Based fashion & beauty photographer and filmmaker, and I’ve worked in the industry for about 9 years.

How did you get into the industry?

I started off taking pictures of my friends for fun. We’d set up shoots on location & I’d edit the pictures afterwards and the positive responses I received each time had me considering it as something I could pursue professionally. But at the time I had very little knowledge on where I could take photography, so curating my Myspace page with sliding galleries of my work was like my own little virtual exhibition. My work was noticed by an agent who was able to get me professional work & I got my first taste of working within the industry.

You use a range of mediums to tell stories; film, photography and poetry. How do you decide which medium to use to tell what story?

They all intertwine. The poetry often reads as a script or treatment for a visual. I didn’t study film so I wasn’t particularly savvy with the traditional process of creating a film; the treatment, storyboard, synopsis, script etc. So my process was to marry together all my skills to create a hybrid.

Where did that come from? Did it come from wanting to write or wanting to go into film?

It just came from a place of having stories to tell & was a way to portray my experiences through a medium that people are able to engage with easily. It’s also a therapeutic process for me. I’m able to let go of a lot through my art.

Do you ever do photography projects for yourself as opposed to the more commercial side of it?

Yes, my personal projects are mostly letters to myself in a way. Or better put, like journals that everyone has access to, and if they’re able to relate & take something from it, then that’s the magic of it.

It rings true of your work, especially your filmography the voiceovers do sound like spoken-word, like letters.

Certain projects I’ve done like ‘Don’t Police My Masculinity’; that was a letter to myself. It was the first piece of work that I’ve felt reluctant to put out because it was so personal. So the response to it being overwhelmingly positive felt really good. It was healing for me & people have expressed to me that same sentiment from it.

Don't Police My Masculinity, 2015.

What is that like for you?

Crazy, because it was unexpected. But at the same time vindicating. As an artist, you can only hope that your work is met with understanding. And that’s not to say that that’s the sole purpose of creating, but it felt really good to know that people understood.

Your work deals with masculinity a lot. It's the defining theme of "Skinny Jeans", which consists of smaller bodies of work like "Flourish". Flourish is one of the most unique takes on black masculinity I've seen, so where did that come from?

Flourish is about just being free. I’ve always been around & admired men who weren’t afraid to express themselves through dance & that’s where the concept came from. It’s an ode to those men & the montage exposes the spectrum of black masculinities. You’ve got men twerking, dabbing, tribal dancing and generally just in their element on a dance-floor and the placement of all these different styles is important & deliberate because you don’t really see that type of juxtaposition.


flourish. [interlude] from Seye Isikalu on Vimeo.

You've talked about freedom and in contrast, masculinity being policed, is that something you faced?

Yes definitely even up until now. But the difference between now and before is that I can recognise the behaviour that’s being projected onto me and possess the language to combat it. Now I can say, “I know what you’re doing, this isn’t about me, it’s about your own insecurities. Stop that.”

Did making these projects help in the unlearning in any kind of way?

Yes of course. Don’t police my masculinity, initially, was me saying “don’t project your insecurities onto me”. That took me on a journey of discovering that I’ve internalised that behaviour so much that I subconsciously do it to myself, & then it became ‘don’t police your own masculinity Seye’. That’s where it took me and I guess that’s why I’m making Skinny Jeans, it documents my journey of unlearning in a way & I get to share it.

Going back to your beginnings in photography, was there anyone you looked to, to create a style?

I took cue from a lot of women photographers. I found their work to be a lot more beautiful & honest. I still do. Black photographers like Itaysha Jordan & Tarrice Love were pivotal in my desire to shoot more subjects that looked like myself, in the same vein as the models featured in glossy fashion magazines, who were mostly white. Their work was testament to it being possible at a time I was being told that I couldn’t shoot too many black models for my portfolio because clients would be turned off by it or think I only know how to shoot black models. Which is ridiculous, but it seemed to be the way the industry worked at the time. I feel like seeing their work stopped me from internalising the toxicity.

Arlenis Sosa by Itaysha Jordan.

Angel Perez by Tarrice Love. 

One thing I admire is an artist's ability to be truthful, to shed any kind of bravado and showcase the vulnerability in their work, this is where I believe Isikalu succeeds. As he clearly put, he is documenting his learning and unlearning and because he takes us with him on this journey quite candidly, as he fills the gaps in representation that media has left for himself, we are able to deeply identify with him in our own way. Asides from this, the honesty with which he approaches his work allows him to pull from his experiences in the most peculiar way, translating everyday thoughts into profound and poetic bodies of work.

Isikalu has also just released a new film; yellow in blue, which you can watch here. It is an expressive story of two roommates navigating love and friendship, definitely worth a watch or 10.