Abdi Ibrahim is a Somali-American photographer and director that is currently living in and based out of Los Angeles. Growing up in Kent Washington, Abdi is the son of two immigrants. He first started shooting around 17 and began exploring his neighborhood and community. Shooting in a predominantly Black and Brown neighborhood, he captures his subjects in their most natural states. Creating images that tell a story and a surreal look that is still meant to be rooted in reality. A cross between documentary and conceptual photography.
His work has been published in the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, I-D Magazine, and many other publications. Ibrahim is also a film and commercial director and has done work for Apple Music, NPR Tiny Desk, and The Fader.
About After School – words by Abdi Ibrahim:
Being in public schooling as a Black or Brown kid in America, you quickly learn that you are constantly being perceived, judged, disciplined and ostracized. Those first couple of hours right after school when you’re back in your neighborhood you feel free. Free to be whatever you want to be and do whatever you want to do. Free of any type of institution or group or social class. Being a kid, life is supposed to feel simple. I remember spending hours outside after school doing absolutely nothing or doing absolutely everything. All while feeling content in where I’m at and careless of the world around me. Being a kid meant the most mundane and anticlimactic days could be turned into something or just basking in emptiness
With this series I wanted to explore the innocence of childhood and adolescence. The idea of simply existing as a Black kid and being able to feel carefree after school. The photos were all taken of my cousins, brothers, and sister and inspired by things I did after school my whole life or things they did after school.
