Untitled (In a trance, she walked out onto her reflection, closed her eyes and received a plan from beyond the mountains)

Christopher Udemezue (also known as Neon Christina) is a Brooklyn-based visual artist, event promoter, and community organizer. His photographs offer a new perspective on Caribbean and African American history. His work features queer models in staged scenes that tell a story by combining dreams and imagination with folklore and historical events. Some of the models in Udemezue’s photographs represent real people who helped liberate enslaved people throughout Caribbean history.

There’s a lot of bickering within the Caribbean community but also a power we have when we actually join together. I wanted to reclaim this work that I was seeing in the art history books but breathe life into these stories. I’m bringing the queerness because it has existed since the beginning—there are so many queer orishas [Yoruba deities] and so many queer gods. I’m on a self-journey to learn through my work but also to reflect the breadth of queerness, Blackness, and storytelling.

Christopher Udemezue

Untitled (in a trance. . .) features four models posing in an imagined scene that takes place in a jungle setting at night. It is part of a series of photographs titled Under the Palm Tree Leaves. In these dreamlike images, Udemezue uses dramatic lighting and composition to reimagine historical moments and explore themes of spirituality, hope, and love. According to the artist, his work highlights both the beauty and the complicated history of his Jamaican heritage. 

In the face of so much violent history, my ancestors found strength to rebel . . . taking care of each other with spirituality that was indeed divination . . . [it] wasn’t just “magic” but medicine.

Christopher Udemezue

In 2016 Udemezue founded Ragga NYC, a series of art and nightlife events for queer Caribbean artists and allies in New York City.