“This final project was implemented to celebrate the glory of melanin and to address the beauty in the various pigments of brown women.” -AmandaLuxe

Recently, I teamed up with a New York City urban enthusiast, Amanda Moore-Karim, on a special project entitled, “Jumping Colors.” Over the course of a month, Amanda assembled a strong team of models, stylists, and a great photographer (Myself), to bring her vision to life.A modern piece of art, Jumping Colors delivers a powerful message. It serves to highlight the beauty within ethnic beauty.

Amanda states, “It’s unfortunate that the Light Skin vs. Dark Skin epidemic still exists in our community; creating a divide amongst our people. It saddens me the stereotypes associated with a skin tone are still a thing. It can get annoying for a woman of light skin pigmentation to be perceived as bourgeoisie. It can get exhausting with the constant nasty jokes a woman of dark skin pigment puts up with. At the end of day, we’re all Black. We are all beautiful and should be grateful God has blessed us with this brilliant feature known as melanin–no matter the hue.”

From the perspective of lighter skinned African American male, it’s very sad that our race is still split along color lines. Whether I’m receiving unfair treatment from other races or experiencing resentment based on my “light skinned privileges” (Reinforced by insecurities within our own race), my “blackness” has always been attacked from both sides. Growing up, my siblings and I were raised to see a spectrum of brown. My father is a dark skinned African American man, and my mother is a light skinned, African/Native American woman. Since my parents have completely different skin complexions, they made us full aware of our melanin beauty. Plus, black was always black in the Carmichael household.

However, as an adult, I realized that everyone was not raised with the same mentality. This is why Jumping Colors really hit home to me. From the darkest chocolate to the lightest vanilla , we have to appreciate and love our blackness. It all starts within.

For the full post, head over to her website: http://www.amandaluxe.com/blog-2/2016/2/29/inspiration-behind-jumping-colors

Check out the some of the photos below!

Credits:

– Models: Nakea Tyson (Pink) | Chanel Love (Green) | Bianca Jeanty (Blue)
– Photography by Bryce Lennon
– Skirt Designs by Cecily Habimana
– Styling by Candace Rogue
– Art Direction by Amanda Moore-Karim