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Hanna Leka – Our Truths, Be Told – 2023


Hanna Leka is a first gen. Ethiopian American self-taught photographer based in Southern California (LA/OC). With humans and her Ethiopian roots being at the center of her interests, portraiture is where she has found herself most curious, but is currently expanding her efforts within a documentary style approach. Constructing works that reflect the way her eyes see the world, Leka strives to continuously capture the beauty and stories of individuals that are made in the profound likeness of the Creator.

 
 
 

The Gallery


 

The Work

This set of images are a part of the larger visual project that I’ve created back in 2021 called “diaspora”. These three images set the scene of what the project as a whole represents; a blend of different Afro cultural worlds symbolized through textiles and serene movement. The individuals that represent the diaspora, in this case, focus on the displaced Ethiopians and Eritreans found in an African American context and where those two cultures meet. Blackness is not binary, but beautifully nuanced as it is found often at the intersection of different worlds colliding, typically a product of immigrant upbringings.

diaspora
Archival Pigment Print
13×20
NFS

come sit with us
Archival Pigment Print
13×20
NFS

same shadows
Archival Pigment Print
13×20
NFS