Black Virgin Mary, 2018 © Adrian Octavius Walker

In 2018, photographer Adrian Octavius Walker completed We Matter, a series of portraits of Black men wearing various colors of velvet durags. The portraits are soft, stylized and empowering, breaking the stereotypes of Black masculinity often presented in popular media with bold, poppy and pastel colors.

“Black Virgin Mary,” an image from the series, was recently included in The National Portrait Gallery’s fifth triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and exhibition American Portraiture Today, on display through August 20th, 2020, among the work of more than 40 artists and photographers whose work addresses race, police brutality, immigration, and citizenship.

Photographer Quinn Russell Brown, who also has a piece in the exhibition – a portrait of Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson – speaks with the St. Louis-born, now Chicago-based artist about the higher meaning of a durag, the perspective that comes from personal experience, and the difference between photographing Black subjects and making work about Blackness.

Quinn Russell Brown in conversation with Adrian Octavius Walker

PostedFebruary 27, 2020

AuthorQuinn Russell Brown

CategoriesExhibitions, Artists, Portfolio

Tagsdurag, Adrian Octavius Walker, Quinn Russell Brown, National Portrait Gallery winners, Black Virgin Mary, black lives matter, contemporary portraiture, new portrait photography

Influencer, 2019 © Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart — *Influencer*, 2019 © Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart

For the past few years, I've jokingly referred to a new, (entirely made-up) genre of punchy, immediately gratifying photos as "woah-tography." While these thousand-points-of-punctum, far-from-subtle photographs hit viewers at first glance, there's miles of complexity below the surface, especially in the work of Toronto-based photographer Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart. Sage's photographs address critical issues related to human impact on the environment with a fun, surreal approach – keeping questions open without leading a specific answer or conclusion.

Sage's work first caught my eye on Instagram in 2017 – a self-portrait of the artist, clothed in kale, tomatoes, and eight baguettes while surrounded by 8 raccoons captioned "Follow Your Dreams." Since then, I've been drawn to her wildly playful, often elaborately staged images that call to mind photographers like Cindy Sherman, Sandy Skoglund, and Gregory Crewdson with new energy and imagination. In another image, "Urban Bath, 2018," Sage wades in a deep blue pond, covered in plastic spoons between two swans who seem unaware of her existence (I recently learned that Sage spent several days visiting the swans to gain their trust in participating in the self-portrait.)

The artist, only recently out of school is riding a wave of successes – The Magenta Foundation included her in their esteemed "Flash Forward" annual for 2019 and she was shortlisted for the 2020 PDN 30 (before the magazine sadly closed), and she recently published her first photobook Outside Inside, which you can get HERE. I spoke with Sage to learn more about her ideas and the process behind her wildly exciting work.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart

PostedFebruary 20, 2020

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesArtists, Portfolio

TagsSage Szkabarnicki-Stuart, self portrait photographers, self-portraiture, photographic self-portraiture, Magenta Flash Forward, PDN30 2020

Mountain Lakes, NJ, 1977. © Arno Rafael Minkkinen. Courtesy of the artist and Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York. — Mountain Lakes, NJ, 1977. **© Arno Rafael Minkkinen. Courtesy of the artist and Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York.**

Edwynn Houk Gallery’s Arno Rafael Minkkinen: Fifty Years ambitiously uses fifteen individual black-and-white photographs to encompass the entirety of the photographer’s five-decade-long career. Minkkinen’s photographs have been carefully chosen to display how he pushes the limits of the form and subject matter--not only in the use of setting and figure but also in the variation of tone and emotional response, all without including a human face. Landscape photography skeptics and agnostics may well be convinced and converted.

PostedFebruary 13, 2020

AuthorDeborah Krieger

TagsArno Rafael Minkkinen, Deborah Krieger, black and white photography, Edwynn Houk Gallery, surreal photography, body and landscape, humble arts foundation

Shortly after Anna Grevenitis’ daughter Luigia was born, she was diagnosed with trisomy 21 - Down Syndrome. For many parents, such news challenges the hopes they harbor that their child will live a “normal” life. By her mother’s account, the now-15-year-old Luigia is a thriving teenager. As her parent and primary companion, Grevenitis knows this better than anyone in her daughter’s life.

Through their ongoing series Regard, Grevenitis invites us to observe choreographed, routinized domestic acts - bathing, grooming, preparing for bedtime - as they unfold between mother and daughter, a loving caregiver and her charge. Our welcome is conditional, though, and requires us to consider who we are looking at, and why. I spoke with Anna and Luigia about this project, and its potency as a visual exploration of spectatorship, collaboration, vulnerability.

Roula Seikaly in conversation with Anna and Luigia Grevenitis

PostedJanuary 30, 2020

AuthorRoula Seikaly

CategoriesArtists, Portfolio

Tagsphotography and down syndrome, self portraiture, self portrait photographers, documentary photography, concerned photography, photography and empathy, contemporary black and white photography

Love On The Bus. Chicago, IL 1967. © John Simmons

John Simmons has been photographing the daily experiences of African Americans in (predominantly) Chicago and the American South since the 1960s. His latest exhibition, No Crystal Stair, currently on view at The Museum of African American Art in Los Angeles, focuses on his work from the 60s and 70s. Intimate portraits volley against photos that capture the period's charged racial segregation. Iconic images of pivotal civil rights activists like Angela Davis sit beside candid photos of everyday life: a young girl eating an ice cream cone, two lovers on a bus, a woman playing tambourine in church.

Simmons notes a heartfelt nod to Roy Decarava’s classic The Sweet Flypaper of Life and the poetry of Langston Hughes, reflecting the era’s many moments as often turbulent, often beautiful visual poetry. We recently connected to discuss his exhibition and work as a photographer and Emmy Award-winning cinematographer.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with John Simmons

PostedJanuary 23, 2020

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesExhibitions, Artists

TagsJohn Simmons, Black and White Photography, Roy DeCarava, Langston Hughes, No Crystal Stair

“We Matter”: Photographer Adrian Octavius Walker on Black Male Beauty

There's More Than Just "Whoa" to Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart's Wild (and sometimes uncomfortable) Self-Portraits

Arno Rafael Minkkinen’s 50 Year Career Photographing the Body Surreal

A Mother and Daughter Use Photography to Challenge the Stigmas of Down Syndrome

John Simmons' "No Crystal Stair" Pays Homage to Langston Hughes and Roy DeCarava