While Campbell Addy was born and raised in a strict Ghanaian household in South London, the photographer claims the label of a global citizen. Traveling back home to Ghana as a child expanded his view of the world early. At his first-ever U.S. exhibition in Atlanta at the SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film, which serves as a retrospective of his work thus far, one is met first with an image that is nothing short of breathtaking.
Standing in a group, one can hear the gasps and utter silence when taking in a dark-skinned woman standing triumphantly in the heart of a waterfall in Ghana, draped in a warm pink ruffled wrap dress. He’s utilized every part of his identity in his art—there is no separating the art from the artist.
Addy’s education at Central Saint Martins, studying fashion communications, later turned into a means to intersect his love of photography with his affinity for fashion. Always artistically inclined, he grew up drawing often as a child, and that habit stuck with him, as did painting. Then he discovered photography in high school, learning about artists like Nick Knight. Realizing one could capture a moment propelled him to a path filled with elegance and a desire to continue to create. Growing up in a home that didn’t assimilate or forsake its culture served Addy well as his fixation on fashion was intrinsic.
The lighting throughout the space is even while the walls are painted a regal purple, starting from shades dark to light in each room to summon the photographer’s feelings of isolation and self-doubt growing toward confidence. At the opening night, guests ranging from fashion’s finest to fashion’s future flood the rooms of the photographer’s life’s work. At only 32 years old, Addy has photographed household names such as Naomi Campbell, Beyoncé, Megan Sussex née Markle, and many more. From major fashion campaigns for I-D, cover stories for The Cut, and now this retrospective, Addy is sitting in this moment to reflect.
His religious upbringing taught him values, particularly avoiding idolatry, that led him to where he is right now. Celebrity is not what brings Addy joy; art does. While these names, the ever-growing accolades, and his successful moments are incredible for a young Black artist, he is still, at the end of the day, an artist first. “That [upbringing] prepared me a lot, because as I was thrown in the deep and as soon as I started shooting, it was super honest. It was all these people I grew up reading and watching and seeing, and I think, [it] allowed me to just be in a space and see them as human,” he said candidly.
He credits his practice for the innate need of expression as the reason for landing these career-defining jobs. At his exhibition, The Stillness of Elegance, within the gallery space is a section dedicated to his personal and commercial work. Photos taken of family members, celebrities, sketchbooks, and Pokémon cards are displayed so onlookers can further understand his journey of vulnerability from adolescence to now. A touching poem he wrote titled “19” was also on display, poignantly expressing what it was like to be a young Black man.
“There’s approx 100 [meters] from my house to the train station/there are 19 eyes that see me as a threat, an equation or ‘other/1 of those eyes are mine.’” Those stanzas point out a parallel of one the darker painted rooms—feelings of self-doubt, fear, and uncertainty, all while being extremely talented. While the artist feels he could be even more vulnerable, that poem and the darkness of the space unveiled such an earnest conviction on the anxiety of growing up, figuring out the future, and being Black on top of that. The last line read, “Remind myself I exist, I am real. I am loved.”
The Stillness of Elegance being his first U.S. exhibition, meditates on many aspects of Addy’s career, including his focus on the sartorial. His cover of Kelela for his magazine NiiJournal covers a wall in the darkest room, showcasing his start and the fact that, even then, he truly creates for the sake of creating. Looking back at his book, Feeling Seen, with a foreword written by former British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enningful, was another intentional reflection of his work.
“All my friends who love what they do, they don’t need to wait for an email or commission to do something. I have a clear boundary of myself that I need to make sure I create two products a year that are my soul with my ideas, just so that I can reflect, check in with myself, and if that’s hindered, it stresses me out,” he expressed. “If I focus solely on commission work, then it wouldn’t be my work, it’d be publication’s retrospective, not mine. You don’t do what you do because of the accolades, You do [it] because even if I was a father of four living in a bayou, I probably would be making art somehow.” He revealed, in true artist fashion, that he has many shoots that may never be made public while he is alive.
To keep this spirit alive, he continues to do more art-led work outside of the context of institution fashion. This, he says, is what has allowed him to be more vulnerable, as this work makes him the commissioner. When asked where he thinks he’ll be in five to ten years, he answered sincerely that he doesn’t know. Oppositely as his adolescent self, he does not fret about the future anymore. As one steps into the brightest room, colors permeate the eyes, serving as an unspoken indicator of where Addy might be headed.
Campbell Addy’s exhibition The Stillness of Elegance is on view at SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film now until September 7, 2025.