Culture

Culture

Atlanta Made Us Famous: Foam dives into the world behind Atlanta hip-hop

Foam is showing Atlanta Made Us Famous this winter: photographer Hajar Benjida's first solo museum exhibition. The series centers on Magic City, a place that competes in Atlanta as a cultural crossroads of hip-hop, nightlife and influence.

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Foam puts with Atlanta Made Us Famous down an exhibition that you don't "pop in" between appointments. This is a series that slowly draws you in: through the looks, the poses, the spaces behind the scenes. Benjida focuses on Magic City in Atlanta - a strip club that functions within the hip-hop world as a cultural epicenter where entertainment and scene intertwine.

The core is not sensation, but perspective. In Benjida's portraits, you see women who are often reduced to one role in the public imagination, whereas the series shows just how broad their lives and influence are. Foam explicitly names them as "unofficial cultural gatekeepers" of their communities, and you sense that in the way the photographs come close: not stealthily or aloofly, but with permission and trust.

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Benjida is not a casual name that comes along for a moment. She was selected as Foam Talent 2021 and is now returning with her first museum solo exhibition. It's exactly that kind of move that Foam is good at: spotting talent early, and later giving it room to really pan out.

You don't walk past "statues" here, you walk past relationships, status, work and pride.

What makes this series strong is that it looks beyond clichés. Foam describes that the women Benjida photographs show their economic independence build through investments in real estate and their own businesses, and that strong social networks between generations become visible - from backstage moments to domestic scenes. As a result, it's not just about a place, but an ecosystem: how influence, money and culture move in a city that hip-hop helps shape.


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Foam Photography Museum Amsterdam
Keizersgracht 609, Amsterdam
-. November 14 to March 25
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November 14 to March 25
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