Photography in Protest
Redeat Wondemu’s 10-year Modern Muse project honors the resilience of Ethiopian women across continents.
Amelia Parenteau
In Redeat Wondemu’s new handmade photographic print, “Ulim,” natural lighting kisses a woman whose face is free of makeup, her hair styled in traditional Albaso braids, and a small tattoo resting on her neck. Her regal pose reels viewers into a conversation about the often overlooked intersection of patriarchy, imperialism and religious culture that Ethiopian women manage. Donning nothing underneath her orthodox garb, the woman’s beauty and nonconformity center her autonomy while underscoring her freedom to express herself through self-presentation and the disruption of the male gaze.
“Things take time in Ethiopia,” Wondemu says. “If you have issues with being patient, you should definitely go there for a few months.” She works slowly and with intention, passing months in the research phase before beginning to capture her images, then spending long overnight hours in the darkroom developing her prints. “If you’re not in it for the long run, how do you see change? How do you see what happens, what’s different, what grows? I’m in it, I’m grateful. I’m connected to my continent in that way, through these stories, through these women’s lives. I take that with a lot of responsibility,” she says.
Building a deliberately time-consuming photographic process is as much a political statement as the photographs themselves, pushing back against the digital deluge of images and information that floods our modern lives.
Wondemu grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, until age 13, when her parents sent her and her twin sister to Chicago for their education. Following her parents’ wishes, Wondemu received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and worked as a pediatric nurse for a decade before boldly taking the leap to pursue analog photography full-time in Washington, D.C., home to the largest concentration of Ethiopians in the United States.
“There was nothing lacking in my life,” Wondemu says. “I was very stable, financially doing well and I traveled quite a bit, but I just couldn’t shake off the fact that I was an artist. I had to admit it to myself.” She sees parallels between her work as a nurse and her work as an artist, since both involve sitting with strong and sometimes painful emotions. “Sometimes, women have a very strong reaction to my photographs because they see themselves in my images,” she says.
Since 2019, Wondemu has developed a thriving photography career with solo shows at the Art of Noize, Hillyer and Homme galleries, and the Addis Ababa Museum in Ethiopia. Her portfolio includes stunning large-scale cyanotypes and handmade prints in sharp silver gelatin and platinum palladium. As a social impact artist, she asks viewers to reconsider their relationship to the subjects of her photographs, whether that’s exploring loss and loneliness through images of flowers as part of her work as a fellow-in-residence at D.C.’s Hillwood Museum, or the serious importance of child’s play in The Games We Played series, for which Wondemu was awarded a HumanitiesDC grant.
Interested in reconnecting with her Ethiopian roots, Wondemu embarked on her 10-year Modern Muse series in 2019, in which she profiles contemporary Ethiopian women in natural, freely expressive poses. As opposed to the extractive approach of some photographers, Wondemu insists upon establishing real connections with her subjects before they enter her studio, relationships that have blossomed over the course of the past six years. “I’m not going and taking,” Wondemu says. “I’m going to receive, if they are willing.”
Wondemu never asks her subjects to smile. Instead, she will sometimes prompt them to think about a particularly difficult period of their life, which results in vulnerable and deep connections between the women and the camera. Unafraid of strong emotions, Wondemu sees her photography practice as holding space for the grief and pain society so often asks women to bury or mask with a smile. She recognizes her subjects’ resilience, honed over time, whether by enduring political upheaval or personal tragedy.
Following her subjects’ evolution over 10 years allows Wondemu to build a complex understanding of contemporary life in Ethiopia from a collective feminine perspective, and she brings that nuanced vision back to her community in D.C. Wondemu’s unflinching eye expands the circle of trust from subject to viewer, building solidarity and empathy across continents with each art piece.
AMELIA PARENTEAU is a writer, French-to-English translator and theater maker based in Washington, D.C., whose work lives at the intersection of art, culture and social justice. Her publications have appeared in American Theatre Magazine, BOMB, Scalawag and others.
