An Interview with Redeat Wondemu

Photograph by Jeremy J. Ives

I happened upon Redeat Wondemu's portraits as a part of a group show at a gallery in Washington D.C. Her work stood out significantly from the rest for the sophistication in technique. As part of the exhibit, she was brewing Ethiopian coffee in the back to the gallery where I had an opportunity to chat with her briefly. I discovered the importance of coffee to her culture and made the connection to the colors of the three works featured in the show. Wondemu does not use a digital camera and she develops her photographs in a darkroom. The process she uses is fascinating and seems challenging. But it is this process that draws her to photography. And the resultant platinum palladium prints are stunning. So I wanted to talk to her more about her process and love for photography.

Shantay Robinson: What brought you to photography?

Redeat Wondemu: I had this inclination to be more artistic than technical or book savvy or gravitate to academia. I've always gravitated to making things by my hands and being very attracted to color and shapes. I can really look back and say my father probably has a huge influence on why I became a photographer. He was the photographer in my family. I come from a very big family, and luckily for us, my mother loves to be photographed. And he loves to take photographs of a family. So, a lot of birthday pictures were taken. We grew up with a lot of photo prints and photo albums in the house. I really came from that. And then I got introduced to it. I went to college thinking I want to study photography. And I was taking classes to major in photography, and life happened. Expectations from my family to maybe study a career path able to provide for you, allow you to eat basically. So, I studied nursing, with this idea of always wanting to be a photographer and really feeling connected to the arts. So yeah, the quick version.

Shantay: So, you went to school for photography, and then you just switched to nursing and then back to photography.

Redeat: Basically, that's kind of what happened. I practiced nursing, for a decade or so and then really couldn't get photography out of my system. And nursing is a good career and has been fulfilling in many ways, and really has also probably allowed me to purchase my nice camera, so it has sort of allowed me to be a photographer in that sense. But about 2018, I really sort of started to focus on becoming a full-time photographer. I consider myself as a lens-based artists. I was really trying to think about this in terms of what is the best way to describe me. I do photography, I use the camera, really to create art, and to make handmade prints in the darkroom. But really, I'm focusing on the art pieces, as opposed to taking single images that are perhaps beautiful, but maybe don't really have a story behind them. I like to research my work. Prior to photographing, I really try to understand and connect. And I'm always sort of seeking a story that is mine or concern of my community.

Shantay: I'm going to ask you a question about that a little bit later. But why do you choose to use hand printing method? What does that process like?

Redeat: Yeah, it connects you to the work. It's very slow. It's very meticulous. You really have to envision what you want, and then you sort of bring it to life. In that sense, it's kind of like painting, right? Painters, they're using paint, some kind of emulsion on the paint on the paper, coating the paper with emulsion light sensitive emulsion. So that aspect of it is still there. And then I'm using my negative for my camera to make a contact print to make the images. And so sometimes it takes a long time from the point of photographing my subject to getting to the print side, it could take about a year or so for me that process. But for me, it's understanding and connecting with what I do in my practice. Of course, I could choose to print it digitally and be sort of okay with it. But the satisfaction that you get is completely different. That feeling that you get is different, I sort of compare it to eating a home cooked meal that your mother made as opposed to like, going out and eating at a fast food restaurant. And that's a not any shade on other practices. But really, for me, I just find satisfaction in the making of my prints. I go as far as even concocting my own chemical to achieve certain work. So, I get very involved, I paint my own backdrop. I really try to craft what my sitters are wearing, constructing fabrics that are traditional, from where I come from, Ethiopia, to making them contemporary and using them in a way that they've never been used. I really liked this involvement with my work. It's unique to me, I guess I would say, and I tried to create something that sort of is mine. And as I also took platinum and palladium printing, it took me, I think, 15 years, from the moment I found out about this way of printing to actually being able to do it. It's also an historical way of printing invented in 1873. And not a lot of people are doing it at all right now. So, it takes a lot of research. I never saw women like me being presented in platinum prints or silver gelatin prints. I guess I should say maybe seldom, maybe silver gelatin prints. So, I really think representing the women that I photograph, in this way is in a way to honor them, but also a way to look back maybe in a few decades to say wow, like this too existed, right.

Shantay: So why did you choose this medium to working?

Redeat: I really enjoy working in the darkroom it’s very nostalgic, that smell, the feeling that you get when you are in that red light discriminating. It's just different as opposed to working in a digital lab. So, I really enjoy that. I really started by saying, what is the work that I will enjoy? Like where can I spend, like so much time that I forget that I'm there? Sometimes I forget to even eat? And it's like eight hours ten hours in the darkroom, you know, and it doesn't feel like times passes for me, because what I'm making and what I'm producing is just so beautiful. And it takes a lot of time. But for me, it just seems like maybe a minute has gone.

Shantay: What about portrait photography and still lives do you appreciate?

Redeat: I think for portrait is the connection with the people that I photograph. I photograph a lot of women. Ethiopian women, for example, in one of my series. And I think, for me, I really try to seek knowledge and community in connection. With these women, we spend a lot of time just talking over coffee and tea, getting to know each other before I photograph them. So, there's a sense of vulnerability, and trust that they have with me. That trust is really important. So, I enjoy that part. Really, the flower series, still lives, came from a time where I really couldn't photograph anybody, especially during 2020. And I really tried to then start to look within, started to also photograph myself, came up with a self-portrait series. Something maybe that a lot of people do not know about my work is that I photograph donkeys in Ethiopia. I documented a clinic that exists in Addis Ababa, the only donkey clinic that services, donkeys, which are the highest population of donkeys. In Ethiopia, there's only one clinic that is available for all these animals. So, I go every year to just document that. There's only one vet and one assistant to document their work. I haven't really shared that work. I’m just sort of waiting. I do that a lot. I photograph and then keep it to myself until I figure out how I can tell the story.

Shantay: You said this twice, but what kind of stories do you like to tell with your work? I know, you have the one about the donkeys but you're not quite sure what you're gonna do with that yet? With your other work? What kind of stories are you telling?

Redeat:  With the story with the photos of the women in Ethiopia, the story is from their point of view, like what life is in Ethiopia at this time. I really gather stories they share with me about what life is like in Ethiopia. What are they facing? What are they going through, and I try to tell it as it is, right? I don't try to sugarcoat it. Sometimes the stories that I've heard of Africa, it's like a pain and suffering from the point of view of just like, not someone who really has a connection to the continent. Sometimes there's suffering in their stories, but sometimes there's like, they're like really strong women, right? Like they're very, determined and they are doing something radical in their community, with their families. They're very generous. Some of them have a heart for their community and for people that are suffering in Ethiopia. They started nonprofits. And so, their stories vary. And, to me, I just tried to go and continue to go there every year or every other year to catch up with them, acquire their stories, and their photographs. And then, you know, come back to the US to get to work, printing their photographs in the dark room and get in show.

Shantay: Why is our making important to you?

Redeat: I studied nursing and it's very important to, to practice, right, to be able to help people through that skill. But then I found myself practicing photography, and really thought, my goodness, like, this is as important or even more important than my practice as a nurse. And I think it has the power to transform. I've been able to connect with people and they had no idea before they saw my work, who I am, what I do when they come, and I get to talk to them, and they sort of open up and share this deep meaningful thing that they went through just from looking at my work. I create so people can be moved by the work, to feel connected, to feel empowered. This weekend during my closing a woman that felt creatively blocked came to my closing and just really spent a few hours. She was literally the last one to leave. She said something along those lines, I’m feeling inspired and motivated to get to work. It matters for her to create her photographs and her art. So, it brings a lot of connection and a lot of opportunities. You see countries that sort of support the arts and support expression that way, but you see how free that country is, you know, even historically, that countries that have destroyed historical artifacts, you can see how that suppresses. But I think art has the power to transform us and to connect us with people with others in ways that not a lot of things can.