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Kweku Diaw is a jack of all trades with a graduate degree in Visual Communication from Ohio University. He is an eclectic thinker whose mind bridges the arts and sciences, revealing the beauty in simple things. Kweku has maintained his core as a writer at heart, making his fortitude in digital and creative strategy, copywriting, journalism, advertising, photography, and video.
His passion for augmenting and enhancing the storytelling experience using visual media in tandem with writing spurred him on and gave him the ambition to embark on this creative project. As an avid anime fan, he researched and realized the need for visual documentation using photography and video to capture anime's mainstream status and impact.
In recent years, anime, a genre in Japanese media, has gained mainstream recognition for its potential to create powerful messages and address social issues. Its universal appeal is due to the recent successes of various anime franchises such as Attack on Titan, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Demon Slayer. Throughout its history, anime has faced criticism over stereotypical depictions of black characters and limited diversity. Black characters only started debuting on screen in the 2000s but were misrepresented. Because of its mainstream status, anime creators have worked to represent a more diverse range of characters, including those of different ethnicities, backgrounds, and body types.
This project explores the growing enthusiasm for Japanese anime within the African diaspora in North America, focusing on cosplay culture. Through a photographic approach, the project visually captures black individuals embodying anime personas. It delves into the intersection of identity, representation, and cultural appreciation by examining the significance of diverse characters and the role of cosplay as a means of self-expression.
After a gallery exhibition in Athens, Ohio, Kweku will look to immerse enthusiasts and viewers in the journey with the displayed photographs. Ultimately, this project endeavors to convey the diverse ways in which individuals from the African diaspora engage with and contribute to the evolving landscape of Japanese anime through the lens of cosplay culture.