SHEDDING

This series is about our immortal nature, the way we constantly change, grow and evolve by shedding skin.  In becoming our most authentic selves, we let go of what no longer rings true to us and center ourselves in our deepest truths. We die many deaths and shed different skins to be reborn in the unraveling of our most authentic selves. Of the varied and ever-expanding ways I have come to learn myself as a person of color, I have found self, freedom and healing in de-conditioning myself, by unlearning imposed beliefs and colonial ideologies that do not resonate with me, I have shed countless skins. Strength has come from rejecting the conditioning of fear and surrendering to the ebb and flow of change, “if we resist and do not shed what is no longer us, we lose access to what is eternal”. This introductory part of an ongoing project exploring the ever-evolving ways we find freedom and self-knowledge as people of color focuses on reclaiming the body as a vessel and site of love, embodying presence to decondition the instinct to live in fear for our bodily selves. The series is inspired by a conversation I had with Conway, learning from him that he can contort his body to any shape because of how his mind and body relate inspired me to imagine freedom in an embodied sense. The journey from a conversation, to reflections and finding creative inspiration from them and shooting this concept has been more than I can put in words, healing, inspiring, fulfilling and humbling. I learnt a lot from the entire experience. I’m in a new skin.
Creative direction: Thandi Gula-Ndebele and Yonela Makoba
Photography: Thandi Gula-Ndebele
Lighting: John Second
Styling: Yonela Makoba
Make Up: Haneem Christian
Models: Conway October & Shaquille De Villiers”