A Starlette's Thick Skin

On a television show known to teach the lessons of pre-pubescence, Sesame Street hosted Oscar award-winning actress, Lupita Nyong’o last week for a much more profound lesson. In a playful repartee with her ticklish counterpart, Nyong’o and Elmo discuss skin as a protective, unifying and beautiful part of people.

“That’s the thing I love most about skin, Elmo,” Nyong’o said in her cameo, “Skin comes in lots of beautiful shades and colors.”

Since she swept the award show scene earlier this year and came to the forefront of fashion soon thereafter, Nyong’o has been surrounded by social buzzwords such as “dark-skinned”, “most beautiful” and “iconic”. But she is not letting these accolades do all of the talking. The Yale educated actress from Kenya is steering a ship of stardom with color consciousness at the helm. Contrary to the muffled nature of the color blind ideology, which is a mindset that dismisses the idea that race and privilege are interconnected, the increasing public will to learn of Nyong’o’s story and lifestyle has incited the type of racial understanding that color consciousness is rooted in.

Lupita Nyong'o in Prada on The Academy Awards red carpet. Photo courtesy of PopSugar.com

In February 2014, at the Essence Magazine Black Women in Hollywood event, Nyong’o spoke on the constitution of beauty.

“My mother would say to me ‘you can’t eat beauty, it doesn’t feed you.’ And what my mother meant when she said, ‘you can’t eat beauty’ was that you can’t rely on how you look to sustain you. What actually sustains us—what is fundamentally beautiful—is compassion,” Nyong’o said.

Lupita has now become her own buzzword. Combatting the power structure that serves the white individuals in Hollywood, Nyong’o has garnered support as a black actor with influential prowess. Throughout the history of media, the power elite media groups bearing authority over what and who will be represented have kept with a pale archetype.

Upon earning People Magazine’s title of “People’s Most Beautiful”, Nyong’o said:

"I was happy for all the girls who would see me on [it] and feel a little more seen."

This rift in the dominant culture’s representation of media figures allows for a more welcoming and authentic media sphere. White privilege in media has allowed for white audiences to incessantly find connections onscreen, and Nyong’o is now added to the abbreviated list of figures to fill the racial void in film.

Lupita Nyong’o has offered a palette of work that transcends the racial barrier in what hopefully will allow for forthcoming roles that are a lot less skin-deep.

Watch Lupita Nyong'o's speech from the Essence Black Women in Hollywood event. ---

Polaroid Proclamations

On any given day, the average, teeth-barring smile requires 26 muscles. What’s more, it takes a maximum of 25 seconds to snap four photos of you and your friends on an iPhone, and another five seconds before half of the subjects in the photo suggest that they look vile, awkward or demonic. In the 1970’s, while a friendly smile still required 26 muscles to muster, a single photograph took upwards of 3 minutes to spew from a Polaroid camera’s mouth and develop into something visible.

Polaroid pictures were praised for their instant, three-minute developing speed in its early years. The photos were waved side-to-side to reveal their slightly blurry or over-exposed content. It’s likely that some of these photos ended up on the kitchen refrigerator to greet you before pouring every glass of milk. Or else they’re probably centered in a family photo album chalk full of outings and their accompanying dates scribbled onto the white space beneath the photo.  

 

Last week, Once Again, a thrift store in Fort Collins that remains underrated to the neighboring thrift store giants like Goodwill and The Arc, answered my Polaroid prayers. From atop a shelf in the electronics section of the store, an original, Polaroid 600 camera jumped towards me and pulled me by the shirt collar to the cash register. Unscathed and without a scratch, the camera which could have been assembled as early as 1983, is fully functional despite its potentially not-so-brief retirement. Considering that the other electronic items on the same shelf included a vintage Kodak that looked as if it spent a good amount of time in a dog’s jaw and a AT&T brick-like cellular phone without the keys for numbers 3,6, and 0, I celebrated my find the only way I know how: inhaling bread and wine.

 

Polaroid 600 and Impossible Color Shade film

For $7.50, I purchased this grandfather of cameras. As Polaroid discontinued their brand in 2008 as a result of slowed business, I worried I’d never take any Polaroid pictures of my own. But with some searching online I found that Impossible Film still produces Polaroid 600 film. Impossible distributes on their website, the-impossible-project.com/ for as low as $23.49. They also have film available for purchasing on Amazon and eBay for the same price. Whether you prefer the ultra-vintage Silver Shade (Black & White), or ‘70s-reminiscent Color Shade film, Impossible provides either packages with a total of 8 photos each.

 

Of all the photo albums I’ve leafed through in my family, my attention is always first grabbed by the raw, candid nature of Polaroids. I, too, am an offender of documenting far too many irrelevant events (and meals) with my iPhone or DSLR Nikon D60. I suppose the difference between photography 40 years ago and today is that the “instantaneous” film became the much more instantaneous jpeg file. These are two different animals—film and digital; the first providing all that’s fresh and candid, the latter providing wider opportunities and infinite do-overs (memory cards permitting).

 

Despite my inherent finger-happy nature in regards to snapping photos, I’ve had to issue some self-restraint with my eight precious Polaroid photos. In two days, I’ve taken two photos. With only a flash and an exposure meter for darker and lighter photos, my Polaroid 600 has spit out both photos with the soft, over-exposed appeal that they’ve long been known for. One factor that reminded me of just how old the camera is was that it took around 10 minutes for the photos to develop. Nonetheless, my elderly soul is grinning with maybe even 27 muscles, as I continue looking for the best photo-ops in Polaroid form.

 

One of the premiere photos from my Polaroid 600

 

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