My life will forever be intertwined with Ethiopia. In my teenage days, this country is where I first found my vision as a photographer. Later, Ethiopia would be where I found my home and my soul mate. ETHIOPIA is a monolithic collection of my images captured over the course of thirteen years. It is an ode to every region of the country and a celebration of all the unique peoples found within. These seemingly disconnected cultural threads are woven together in a cohesive visual style in order to truly see Ethiopia— which itself is the sum of all the diverse lands and theproud people who inhabit it.

The dignified vision found in the portraits is not to obscure other searing
realities within Ethiopia, such as the wealth inequality and traumatic conflict
spread across the country. It is to highlight the prestige I have always
recognized here. This collection is about the timeless and pure things that
have withstood the politics of the day, and to challenge the way the outside
world can perceive this country. This is my tribute to the enduring Ethiopia.

Ethiopia

For centuries, the art world was seen through the eyes of a small few who, under a patriarchal society, chose the aesthetic and the narrative—and whose main depiction of the sacred female body was as an objectified and sexualized woman. 

Delphine Diallo aims to change this dynamic. Her intention is for every woman she photographs to feel the image she makes of them is a personal gift. “I am not taking pictures, I am giving pictures,” as Diallo puts it. By engaging in intimate conversations with her subjects, Delphine removes the sense of vulnerability that often comes with being photographed. Working with body painters and jewelry and mask makers, Diallo also uses traditional mythology and spiritual symbols to empower her subjects. Her portraiture is all about connection and exchange. She believes women are deep beings and connects with them on an emotional level. The French-Senegalese photographer spends more time speaking with her subjects than photographing them. 

Diallo’s photographs are never discriminating, yet deeply communicative, and portray women beyond judgment, soaking up their limitless beauty. Diallo's works are meant to encourage every woman to write a personal narrative, to take a stand, to have a firm voice. No preparatory models, sketches, or plans lay behind her photographs, which depict only outstanding feminine painted bodies. It is all a part of the vision flowing out of the artist's mind, grounded in her right brain hemisphere, predominant in her energetic and vibrant personality. 

Drawing elements from eastern mythology and philosophy, whilst always ennobling and empowering women, her practice is reminiscent of Oriental 19th-century painting. Looking at Krishnamurti, Frantz Fanon, Joseph Campbell, Bruce Lee, Aimé Césaire, and A.D. Wilson as deep inspirational sources, her photographs raise awareness, appealing to all women to awaken their senses. Diallo immerses herself in the realm of the feminine universe and her eloquent portraiture technique unveils and stirs unexplored emotion and insight meant to reach beyond appearances. 

“We are in constant search for wonder and growth. I see art as a vessel to express consciousness and as an access to diffuse wisdom, enlightenment, fear, beauty, ugliness, mystery, faith, strength, fearlessness, and universal matter”.

Divine

“I suppose I could make a work where the sun is shining, the mom is lying out in the grass, the kids are happy, and everything is perfect, but that wouldn’t interest me—and it wouldn’t be truthful. My aim is to create a more nuanced, subtly humorous and satirical portrait of the way we live today.” - Julie Blackmon

The playfully artful and chaotic elements present in the photographs of Julie Blackmon (American, b. 1966) are drawn from the everyday people and places of Blackmon’s daily routine in her hometown of Springfield, Missouri, which she describes as “a generic American town in the middle of the United States.” At first glance, the works may conjure backyard paradises of children at play; a closer look reveals children alone in backyards, garages, and neighborhoods, where the absence of adults suggests a looming potential for danger. The images brim with fantasy and subtle satire that capture a delicate balance between the darkness and charm of contemporary American life.

Blackmon carefully sets her scenes, but like film and theater
directors, she is in pursuit of unscripted moments that provoke,
disturb, and challenge the viewer. Some of the images reference
paintings by Dutch masters, French impressionists, and such modern painters as Hopper and Balthus, but they are updated with a satirical, penetrating eye and Blackmon’s belief that artful fiction can capture the truth more memorably than the truth itself.

Homegrown

Right before I made the first image of Sharrod, when he went to his bedroom to change, his mother turned to me and said, “Whenever he puts on his uniform, I no longer see my son.”

In the winter of 2008 I met Sharrod, who was in his first year of high school and had recently enrolled in National Junior Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (NJROTC), a military preparatory program offered in high schools nationwide. After explaining my connection to the military and that I was an alum of the same high school that both Sharrod and his mother attended, I asked if I might photograph Sharrod from his freshman to senior year (2008-2012). They both agreed and over the course of the next four years, Sharrod played out his military fantasies for my camera. Sharrod also shared with me the photographs he was making with his cell phone and notebook doodles of weapon construction. These private images and examinations rub up against, color, and compliment the medium format images I’ve made providing the viewer a fuller image of Sharrod’s journey.

Over the course of making the images and video installations for "I slowly watched him disappear," I wondered about the process within which the military body is formed both literally but also psychologically, visually, and emotionally. What is the process of indoctrination and how does the heavy flow of military marketing messages — specifically in military towns— foreclose possibilities for a life beyond the uniform? Furthermore, can one photographically locate the transition from civilian to member of the military unit? 

"I slowly watched him disappear" is the first part of a multimedia “essay” including photographs, video installations, nonfiction films, curatorial projects, and texts which organize my meditations on the fantasy, construction, and deconstruction of the military body and its effects on the broader culture.  

I slowly watched him disappear

The Artist

The Story