The photographic portrait is of South Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech with siblings Kim, Yar, Bior and Alakiir. It was taken by Charles Dennington in 2018. It is a black and white inkjet print on paper, measuring about 33 cm tall by 44 cm wide. The photograph is surrounded by a wide white mounting and slender dark wood frame.
The photograph is in landscape orientation, offering a wide view of the Akech siblings. A corrugated metal fence takes up the top half of the scene and long drying grasses fill the lower half.
The top left corner of the portrait is in dark shade. The rest is bathed in bright sunlight. The fence of pale steel runs from the upper left corner in a shallow diagonal, down across the background.
Going from left to right, Kim, Adut, Yar and Alakiir recline on sun lounges. Brother Bior, a crown on his head, pops up from behind Yar’s lounge, the second from the right.
The family are posed on retro-style, woven plastic sun lounges. The lounges’ legs are obscured by, and they seem to float on top of, long coarse straw-like grass.
Kim sits in the leftmost lounge. Her hair is braided in cornrows and knotted in a ponytail on top of her head, the intricate braids draping over her shoulder. Angular cats-eye sunglasses shade her eyes, and her lips are partially open. She wears a light-toned t-shirt, its lettering obscured by loose folds, and holds a small Just Juice popper in her right hand. Her trousers are pale with a wide check pattern and elastic cuffs, and on her feet are bright white pool slides. Her left leg is bent and she rests her left hand just above her knee.
Adut reclines to Kim’s right. She has close-cropped hair and looks up at us over her white-rimmed sunglasses. Her mouth is slightly open in a rosebud pout, her chin tilted down. She wears a bright white-toned dress with tight structured bodice and loose flowing skirt. The skirt is cast aside to show her long bare legs extended on the sun lounge. Her feet are clad in patent leather ankle boots with stiletto heels.
Yar looks like the youngest smallest sibling, with her head only reaching part way up against her lounge. Her hair is gathered in two bunches of tight curls atop her head. She looks directly towards us as she sips from a juice cup accessorised with a cocktail palm tree and umbrella. Yar wears one-piece swimmers patterned with a pineapple design and her feet are bare.
Popping up from behind the headrest of Yar’s lounge, Bior is also gazing into the camera, lips closed. A large crown of printed fabric perches on his head.
Alakiir is on the far right of the portrait. She also peers over her sunglasses towards us, sipping juice from a glass through a spiral straw. Alakiir is wearing a gingham-patterned top, tight, long-sleeved and cropped below the bust. Beneath this she has on one-piece swimmers with a bold light and dark toned pattern. Her bare legs stretch almost to end of the lounge and her bare feet cross at the ankles.
Audio description written by Lucie Shawcross and voiced by Ellie Brotchie
Adut Akech Bior (b. 1999), supermodel, was born in South Sudan and spent the first several years of her life in the UN's Kakuma refugee camp in north-west Kenya, after her family fled from civil war. They came to Australia in 2008 and settled in Adelaide. Her break-out modelling assignment came at the age of 16, when she walked the runway for Yves Saint Laurent at Paris Fashion Week 2016. In 2017, she became only the second woman of colour to model bridal gowns for Chanel. The following year she featured in the Pirelli calendar, and made 33 appearances at Paris Fashion Week. She was selected by the Duchess of Sussex to feature in British Vogue’s 'Forces for Change' edition in 2019, which profiled her activism on humanitarian issues, the rights of asylum seekers, and racial and gender equality.
Charles Dennington's portrait of Akech was originally taken for the December 2018 issue of Vogue Australia. Dennington discussed plans for the shoot with Akech in advance, giving him a deeper insight into the model's personal life. This portrait of Akech with her siblings Kim, Yar, Bior and Alakiir is one of a group of images that present a funky and upbeat glimpse of the Sudanese–Australian model and her family at home in Adelaide.
Gift of the artist 2020
© Charles Dennington
Charles Dennington Pty Ltd (4 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Aimee Board chats to emerging photographer Charles Dennington.
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