Lu Smith Is Reclaiming Divine Crowns

[ad_1] by Keka Araújo January 24, 2026

O C H A S: Reclaiming The Divine Crown By way of Lu Smith III's Creative Lens

For photographer Lu Smith III, the digicam is much less of a recording machine and extra of a device for reclamation. By way of his ongoing collection, O C H A S, which started in 2015, Smith engages in a complicated subversion of the Western gaze, stripping away the pejorative, sensationalized labels typically slapped onto Afro-Caribbean non secular traditions like Santería and Lukumí.

Of their place, he installs a visible vernacular rooted in regality, social intelligence, and what he calls “Black is-ness”.

“One factor I’m super-proud of is that there are extra of us coming again into this custom,” Smith says of the rising motion of Black Individuals reconnecting with ancestral practices. “I’m super-excited about that. So I, like, I’m simply lit for this,” the extremely gifted multihyphenate recognized professionally as “Lu Smith” says. He's primarily outlined by the diaspora’s duality.

With an American father and a Trinidadian mom, he strikes by means of the world with the seasoned perspective of a worldwide citizen who stays deeply tethered to the soil of his ancestors. This bicultural fluidity permits him to navigate sacred areas with a novel sensitivity—one which acknowledges the “one foot in, one foot out” actuality of the bicultural diasporan.

Smith’s connection to the previous just isn't merely nostalgic; it's a reclamation of the idea of longevity that defies Western actuarial tables. Smith famous that the retention of those traditions in locations like Cuba is inextricably linked to the power of the elders.

This intergenerational understanding and data allow a non secular continuity that many within the U.S. have been traditionally denied.

“They (Cubans) nonetheless might go speak to a few generations again on a Sunday,” Smith observes. “You stroll throughout the road and… that outdated woman is a Yaya, and her household they arrive from the kabi kabi the Congo… Oh, that’s some Congo sh*t.”

It's this dwelling historical past that Smith seeks to doc, shifting past the “Catholic veil” that when served as a crucial shroud for survival.

In O C H A S, Smith deliberately obscures faces to middle the Orisha moderately than the person, using large-format cameras to replicate the endurance mandated by the religion. He's additionally fast to appropriate the frequent misnomer that characterizes these practices solely as “Yoruba faith,” noting the complicated mix of Dahomean, Fon, and Edo influences.

“They name it the faith of the Yorubas. It's not a Yoruba faith,” Smith asserts.

Lukumí, traditionally recognized by the colonial label Santería, is a complicated Afro-Caribbean spiritual system that crystallized in Cuba as an important vessel for West African non secular and cultural retentions. This religion is anchored within the veneration of Orishas—divine entities who function intermediaries between the supreme creator and the bodily world, every personifying particular forces of nature and sides of human existence. Practitioners preserve a state of non secular equilibrium by cultivating ashe, the primordial life drive of the universe, which is activated by means of complicated rituals involving rhythmic drumming, sacred dance, and divination.

Removed from the sensationalized caricatures typically present in Western media, the custom is outlined by a rigorous philosophical framework and a legacy of regality that supplied a sovereign sanctuary for African identification all through centuries of colonial suppression.

In his work, Smith additionally confronts the puritanical modesty that colonization pressured upon Black our bodies. He discusses the usage of nudity in O C H A S as an allegorical return to the old fashioned methods of the cabildo. “They noticed me once I was born. They selected me once I was born,” he says of the Orisha. “What they inform us now—‘Oh, you don’t be bare in entrance of your Orishas’—I got here on this planet bare. What are you speaking about?”

Finally, O C H A S is an train in high-level curation. Smith just isn't thinking about pulling the curtain all the best way again for a voyeuristic viewers. As an alternative, he presents a model of Black life that's refined, mysterious, and undeniably “regal.”

“When you don’t know something, Black individuals are refined and regal,” Smith concluded. “For those that have a bit extra inquisitiveness… this might very simply be an introduction to every little thing that you just assume that you recognize about ‘Africa sh*t.’ Here's what’s actually occurring”.

Orisha Manifestations: Oya & OshunThe Tempest: Oya No. 22In the manifestation of Oya, Smith captures the Orisha of the winds, {the marketplace}, and the gates of the cemetery with an unyielding, silent dignity. The machete resting throughout the shoulder is a visceral allegory of the spirit’s sharpness and the warrior’s want for defense. The white headwrap, sure with structural precision, evokes a crown of ancestral authority. In distinction, the dusting of efun (white chalk) throughout the pores and skin acts as a cooling balm—a ritualistic signature of readability and “coolness” maintained even within the warmth of battle. Her kind, partially unveiled, rejects colonial disgrace, standing as an alternative as a monument to a sacred vulnerability that's directly human and divine.

Photograph credit score: Lu Smith

The River: Ochun No. 19In the manifestation of Ochun, the Orisha of the river, sweetness and sensory magnificence are rendered by means of a lens of honeyed revolt. The cascade of cowrie shells draped throughout the again signifies not simply wealth, however the very voice of the divine by means of divination. The presence of lace and wonderful textures mirrors the regality Smith seeks to revive to the Afro-diasporic narrative.

Right here, the efun settles into the pores like stardust, cooling the “feisty head” to make sure that even a spirit as passionate as Ochun strikes with a calculated, royal calm. It's a picture that embodies the inward gaze introduced outwardly, demanding respect by means of its sheer sophistication.

Photograph Credit score: Lu Smith

Smith’s entry into the Lukumí custom wasn’t by means of an instructional textual content, however by means of the visceral pull of the drum. A jazz musician in a earlier life, he discovered himself captivated by the distinct power of Cuban percussion. “The music is what obtained me,” he explains. “Taking part in Latin jazz… seeing this like, yo, why is it that once I see Cubans taking part in, it’s a special form of, like, ‘oh’ to it?”

This curiosity led him to his godfather, an completed Matanzero musician, and ultimately to Cuba’s sacred ceremonies for drummers. It was there that the “good luck” rituals of his childhood residence gained their correct identify.

“Sarcastically, I’m seeing these cats doing the identical sh*t my grandmother and great-grandmother have been doing,” Smith remembers. “Now I've context. Mother is aware of what I’m into, and he or she’s similar to, ‘Have you ever ever had a damaged bone? Have you ever ever been within the hospital?’ Precisely. Them outdated people knew one thing that you recognize”.

Smith stands as a sentinel on the intersection of ancestral provenance and up to date visible prose. His work just isn't merely a set of pictures, however a rigorous intervention in opposition to the historic erasure and pejorative labeling of Afro-diasporic religion. By centering an ethos of regality and “Black is-ness,” Smith serves as a bridge for these looking for a manner again to a convention that was as soon as hidden behind veils of survival.

He stays fiercely protecting of the “sauce,” rejecting the voyeuristic educational gaze that seeks to review Black energy solely to dilute it. As he navigates his personal non secular and inventive journey, Smith is much less thinking about offering a roadmap for the uninitiated and extra dedicated to making a sanctuary for the sovereign.

“In case you are , then my work is to trigger you to start out asking questions,” Smith concludes, remaining “lit” for a future the place the crown of the diaspora is seen, honored, and eventually understood by itself phrases.

Minding Our Personal Enterprise A Highlight On Diaspora Enterprise and Tradition.

Keka Araújo is our Senior Editor and the sharp-witted voice behind Minding Our Personal Enterprise: A Highlight On Diaspora Enterprise and Tradition. She explores the connective tissue of the African diaspora by means of the lenses of leisure, training, and financial fairness.

With practically a decade of trade affect, she chronicles the tradition—from enterprise to social justice to tradition—by means of a relentless give attention to Black collective energy. Bicultural and unapologetic, she’s perpetually rooting for everyone Black, from the Motor Metropolis to the continent.