BY JUSTIN CHAN (In The Know)
If you take one look at Tamara Jacqueline Smith’s Instagram account, @taqueth, you’d find it hard to miss images of vibrant faces and food that litter her page. Since 2015, the 24-year-old New York City native and freelance videographer — who goes by Taqueth — has been heavily promoting her Jamaican ancestry by capturing her experience in Jamaican places that she considers “raw and unseen.”
The purpose is to not only promote Jamaican culture but to bring Black excellence to the forefront.
“Personally, I deal with food, and I deal with culture and space and events … especially in the Black community,” she told In The Know. “I’m a big person when it comes to my Black community. I’ll say it loud and proud. I’m moved by that.”
For the past five years, Smith has been meticulously recording the experiences of the Jamaican people in all their glory. In doing so, she makes it a rule to not interact with her subjects in an effort to shoot them in their natural element.