20 years ago, other photographers were like,
"Why can't we shoot for Vogue?" or "Why can't we do this?" back in the nineties.
And there were some great photographers.
A lot of people got discouraged.
And that's the hardest thing is not being discouraged as an artist.
When I first discovered photography, Gordon was one of the first photographers
that I found out about, and it was his story following gangs in Harlem.
And there was this
eerie shot of the leader of the gang, you know, staring out the window.
You know, and just him
following that gang through Harlem,
going to funerals,
things that I see in my
in my day to day life really touched me.
It let me know that I could document those moments, too.
My community in Baltimore,
we never really get to speak for ourselves.
It's usually like a external voice
that's always speaking for us.
And, you know, and I think that's the issue with
a lot of Black communities similar to mine,
where the external voice
is louder than the internal voice.
They talk about "The Wire," they talk about,
you know,
the murder rate, you know.
they talk about the fact that we were the heroin capital
of America at one point in time.
But it's, it's
it's intimate moments that I know growing up in Baltimore
that a lot of people don't get to see.
So I wanted to make sure that I can counter that narrative, document everything.
When I saw what Gordon was able to do
in Harlem
and tell their story, you know, and not demonize them--
those images just
just scream to me, you know, really, really, really loud.
For me, the young girls at the chain link fence
looking out
and seeing the white girls play.
One, it's a beautifully composed image.
But also,
I think I saw that at a relatively young age,
and I didn't comprehend the impact of it.
But I always remembered it,
because I remember how it made me feel.
Because it made me feel like I was an outsider,
it made me feel like I was an other.
So that initial image was like,
"Oh! This is the power of imagery."
Gordon Parks is a huge influence on all photography,
not just African-Americans, Blacks,
Hispanics-- whatever-- White. It's everyone.
He's just a huge icon in the photography industry.
So when I was growing up, when I was studying photography,
he was always someone I was looking up to or just trying to emulate, or
trying to just find out how he did something.
When I first discovered Gordon Parks,
just seeing, I guess,
those different kinds of applications to street photography in Harlem really pushed me.
The work of Gordon Parks is very instrumental in my growth
and development early on.
You know?
Before I even really knew his name,
I would just see his images,
and what he documented, you know,
from Muhammad Ali to Malcolm X
to the Nation of Islam,
to racism in the South.
When I got into photography, I would always study, you know,
the Jamel Shabazzes,
the Gordon Parkses,
the Tony Barbozas,
the Ruddy Royes.
It's so many black photographers that just
just their perspective-- it's like I felt like I knew them through their imagery.
You know, I was introduced to the work of James Van Der Zee,
and that was very instrumental in developing my eye
as a photographer.
Because now I'm seeing Black pride and dignity.
So that kind of like shaped my vision
to look for that love,
to look for the dignity in my own personal journey.
And then there's a number of unknown photographers that really
need to be known.
Louis Mendes,
Howard Cash,
and Suleiman Ellison.
So those are some of the main ones who served almost like my big brothers
back in the day.
You know, I'm self-taught and I never
like really had a lot of
photographer friends when I was
learning how to be a photographer.
And I didn't really think that there were that many Black photographers out there,
because at the time, like
I was only seeing white photographers being successful in the space--
And then I started meeting people like Gioncarlo Valentine.
I honestly feel like he's like one of the Gordon Parks of our time.
Like, really, really beautiful, impactful work.
And like,
I love Kennedi Carter's work,
and I just feel like there's so many
important people that are here now.
And that you can actually, you know,
see making headway in the industry and making headway in history
that we just have never had before, you know?
Yeah. Truly, yeah.
So many incredible people who are making work that will stand the test of time.
Yeah.
I think it's OK for us to say that we are living with the legends.
Just sitting on the table with you guys,
I've had to pinch myself a couple of times,
because
your cover of Megan Thee Stallion is just like--
man...
I only had five minutes to shoot that.
You know?
Or "Power."
And I'm sitting right next to the gentleman.
You know, sitting next to Kwaku--
For coming up,
you were, honestly, as far as
an accomplished Black photographer
whose name we were seeing
on a regular basis, like--
we're looking for the bylines, we're trying to find,
and it was that name, it was that name.
It's like, you know, the
the Oprah dinner, and it was like,
"Who's shooting this? Who did she get to capture this?"
And then it's like,
The Obamas--
It's just-- you know,
I think what Erik said
and what Dana is saying is like,
the ones that we look up to are really here.
And I mean,
you're-- you--
I need you to understand that.
Like--
Thank you, I mean,
I sit on the shoulders of so many people--
so many photographers.
And I'm just-- it's a journey,
and I'm just happy
to be doing it and helping my friends, and helping people come up with me.
And it is really is a community thing.
This really is a fellowship.
You have to do it together.
A lot of Black photographers were taken advantage of in 2020 after George Floyd died.
They were swindled out of their work,
because they did not understand leasing agreements
and the agreements that they were signing.
They just wanted to get the work out there.
And these editors need to be held accountable, because they knew what they were doing.
I think that this happens way too often with younger photographers
or photographers that just don't know any better,
because you're just like, "Oh, I'm just happy to be here,"
and I'm not going to know that I need to be able to license this
this work in the future.
That I--
these are prints for my future, you know, like
gallery shows,
for museum exhibition.
And like, this is how White photographers eat into their sixties, seventies, eighties,
because they can license those images, they can have, you know, retrospectives.
And it's like, now you don't own anything--
And so many young photographers don't own most of their work
And they don't realize it.
You know, Gordon has this thing where he said that the camera is a weapon.
And I didn't really understand that until Mike Brown died and Ferguson erupted.
You know, I had this camera in my hand. You know, Gordon said it's a weapon.
You know, so I went down to the protest,
and for once, I really understood how powerful my imagery was.
My work is sitting in the Gordon Parks Archive.
You know, when people say, you know
"Sky's the limit, and dreams come true,"
I'm literally walking in my own truth right now,
because I was so adamant
about taking pictures and wanted to chase this
outlandish dream that people told me that would
never happen.
But now, you know, I stand here,
and it's happening.
Gordon Parks didn't just pave the way--
He built the road.
Brick by brick.
And we love him for that.
We honor and thank him for that.
His work gave courage to others to lock in on the barriers that could
and would be broken down.
Well, who here at the table was self-taught?
Well, I mean-- I guess I was.
I just remember sitting outside on the stoop one day around the way
telling my friends, "I think I wanna be a photographer."
And like everybody bust out laughing, you know,
because we didn't know any artists or any photographers.
They said, "You got to go to art school or something for that."
And I was like, "Well, if my homegirls, can you know,
learn how to do makeup and lace front wigs from YouTube,
I think I can learn photography.
When we shot "School Daze," the first week,
I was trying to develop my own film
in the bathroom, in the hotel.
I didn't know that there's a studio that you could send the film to--
that they would process--
I thought I had to do everything myself.
That's how green I was.
But guess who--
guess who's getting booked and paid to come talk to you?
A self-taught photographer!
I'm coming to your school and speaking now.
I'm gonna have to-- I mean I under--
I partially agree.
But I have to disagree.