Ladan Osman is the author of EXILES OF EDEN, winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and a Whiting Award, and THE KITCHEN-DWELLERS TESTIMONY, winner of the Sillerman Prize. Her photos and experimental media have been exhibited by Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Arts Incubator, Furious Flower, and the New York African Film Festival. Her work as a documentary filmmaker focuses on portraits of artists in process: Sam Underground, The Ascendants, and Sun of the Soil. She lives in New York. Author photo credit: Beowulf Sheehan

ART

Ladan Osman's Halos in Harlem

By LADAN OSMAN

Years ago, I’d look through photobooks and think: great composition, beautiful work in the darkroom, wow what a scene. But then I focused on the gaze of the subject, really, the collaborator.