The three founders of Nataal came from worlds that rarely overlap. Sara Hemming had been art director at AnOther magazine. Helen Jennings had edited Arise, one of the few publications dedicated to African luxury and style. And Senegalese actor and director Sy Alassane had just starred in Andrew Dosunmu's film Restless City. When they launched Nataal as a digital platform in 2015, out of London, they pooled fashion-magazine polish, on-the-ground African knowledge, and cinematic ambition into something the media landscape had been missing.
For three years Nataal operated online, building a community of photographers, stylists, and writers from Lagos to Johannesburg to the diaspora in London and New York. Then in 2018, they went to print — a 336-page debut annual featuring work by Viviane Sassen and Kristin-Lee Moolman alongside commissions from emerging talents. British Standard Type drew a bespoke display typeface with what the editors described as an idiosyncratic, vernacular personality. US Vogue called their Brooklyn exhibition at Red Hook Labs "a journey into the rich visual culture of Africa."
What sets Nataal apart is its refusal to treat African creativity as a monolith. One issue might feature Lakin Ogunbanwo photographing Nigerian musicians in Lagos, Art Comes First assembling menswear influencers in Paris, and Wanuri Kahiu presenting research into joyful African myths in Nairobi — all between the same covers, all given equal weight and equal beauty.
The name, fittingly, carries a double meaning — "natal" as in birth, beginnings, the new. Nataal is not documenting a trend. It is building the visual record of a creative renaissance in real time.
<a href="https://nataal.com/magazine">Visit Nataal