In Pursuit of Home - In Conversation with Takenya K. Holness

“And I think, when I went to Jamaica, it was like an epiphany that this is actually home”

Takenya K. Holness 'Dwellings'

Jamaican born and UK raised photographer, Takenya Holness, once said “photography dares you to care to notice”. This is a sentiment that is strikingly obvious in her photography practice. Starting out as a casual photographer on her iPhone then transitioning to her first professional camera, her two most recent projects Dwellings and A Fly in Jamaica set out to capture the beauty of the country she calls her homeland. Both projects tell a story of self rediscovery through a lens of both grief and reverent wonder. 

After a twelve year hiatus from travelling back home, initiated as a surprisingly principled eleven year old girl, disillusioned by the tourist-esque nature of her family trips, Takenya’s 2023 trip sparked a deep sense of belonging within herself. After finding out her estranged father had passed five years prior, Takenya returned to Jamaica with the mission to “immortalise his grave” and reconnect with parts of her family that she never knew. It was within this that she “fell so in love with the environment and the people, I thought to myself, I don't even have a project right now. I just felt that this is where I like to photograph. This is where I feel inspired to pick up a camera”. By picking up her camera here, Takenya discovered that for her, “Jamaica is the perfect landscape to explore photography”. Born from the inspiration of this trip, Takenya’s lens captures her awe as she rediscovers Jamaica candidly and authentically. 

Takenya K. Holness 'Dwellings'

Her project, Dwellings, is born from this desire to explore the perfection of the Jamaican landscape. Takenya’s photographs conduct an in depth study into the afterlives of Jamaica’s colonial past through architecture. Rooted in both British and Spanish colonial influences, the buildings featured in Takenya’s photographs are a testament to Jamaica’s ability to grow from its dark past. In spite of this, each building features its own unique bright colouring, some bright white with grand beams and arches, others with multicoloured designs and awnings to match. Within many of the shots, the building's residents are present, bringing life to the stillness of the shot. The casual nature of their inclusion in the shots convey a homely and comforting presence, with the young children specifically standing out with their amused grins. Takenya’s position as a photographer here is of note as, while she captures the entirety of these buildings’ exteriors, she does not actually enter the homes in question. The photographs within the collection reveal a respect for the private intimacy of the inner sanctum. Housed within these structures that pay homage to a past of colonialism that has grown into resilient beauty, are lives to be respected. The external beauty of these homes and Jamaica itself, are not the end of the story, but rather these photos suggest that they are the beginning, concealing whole worlds inside of them. 

Takenya K. Holness 'Dwellings'

Despite being a conveying a quite positive and lively landscape, one photograph stands out in the collection in a different way. Takenya features an abandoned, unfinished building in the project, treated in black and white. When discussing her position as a diasporic Jamaican while creating Dwellings, Takenya ruminates on the state of “damage” that can be perpetuated on the island. “Through my Dwellings project, I've noticed there's a lot of unfinished houses on the island, and they kind of become a fabric of the landscape, and they speak to the dreams and aspirations that actually don't come to fruition”. In her evaluation of this phenomenon, Takenya considers how “we go back as foreigners and we are labelled foreigners, and a lot of people go back and they don't integrate with communities. So, of course, people who live there are going to just see you as these people that just come and go, build your houses, don't even finish them…you don't come back, you don't integrate yourself, you don't help your communities.” 

Takenya K. Holness 'A Fly in Jamaica'

Prior to her trip, Takenya’s affinity with her culture was found in her UK home, specifically through her mother’s mannerisms, “the way she cusses, the way she talks, the way she dresses”. Despite feeling a distance from the more mainstream representations of her culture within Black Britain due to the constraints of her religious upbringing, Takenya recognised that her family were a constant reminder of who she was and where she had come from. Now as an adult she uses her photography to fill in those missing pieces, not just culturally but in the fragments of her known and unknown family. Takenya fulfils this through A Fly In Jamaica, a series of photos taken on her journey to piece together her familial ties. Taken sporadically from the windows of taxis or as she explored her surroundings, these photos challenge the concept of “romanticising the culture”, a question that she simply rebutted with “Jamaica is actually just that beautiful, you know?”. Calling back on her vehement refusal to act as a tourist in her homeland, Takenya’s shots are purposeful in their avoidance of the white sand beach “aesthetic” advertised as reality. 

This sentiment is reflected in how Takenya seeks authenticity through her photography in the UK. Dismissing the imposition of beauty standards on her subjects, Takenya prefers to “photograph in a way that’s very raw”. Going further she states, “you don't have to be in your best dress for me to point my lens at you. You don't have to. You don't have to be doing anything. Being black is enough, it’s important and beautiful. And I'm going to capture you because you deserve that. In general, it doesn't have to be political. It doesn't have to be a political story. It doesn't have to be a fight, you know? You're allowed to exist just as you are.” Although disillusioned by the dreariness of British weather and the country’s tumultuous colonial past in connection with her home, Takenya remains determined to stay focussed on her “community and culture” here in the UK. In a mindset similar to that of Sankofa (to go back and get it), Takenya survives in the UK by finding “people and things that remind me of Jamaica”. Both before and after her trip, this yearning for home is prevalent in her Jamaica focussed lens in previous projects such as Mango Tree and her work for Windrush 75. Ultimately, Takenya recognises the necessity of her practice to centre and safeguard our communities by documenting and telling our stories, a mission that she claims is her “driving force”. 

Takenya K. Holness 'A Fly in Jamaica'

In her continued efforts to honour her heritage and build community, Takenya aspires to one day be a Black researcher. “We don't have a lot of people interrogating our history, understanding it, and actually rewriting it or redocumenting it. We need the papers. It's not enough to just have conversations, unless we record it. We need to record empirical evidence”. Recognising the need for black educators in academia, Takenya hopes to contribute meaningfully to making this dream a reality. By building community, Takenya believes that we will be able to reclaim our histories and liberate ourselves, an ideology that she hopes will lead us home.