American Gods, 2017. Photography John Edmonds.
In 1952, Roy DeCarava became the first African American photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship and he used the grant money to create a stunning series of black and white pictures documenting intimate moments of daily life of his native Harlem. The resulting work was a warm and wondrous portrait of the familial spirit of the community when Harlem was the Mecca of black life in the United States.
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After book publishers rejected the work, DeCarava packed the photos up and kept them in his closet until epiphany hit. He decided to share them with his neighbour, the poet Langston Hughes, who immediately recognised the beauty of the world in which he lived. Hughes sifted through the 500 photographs DeCarava gave him and began to pen a fictional account of their hometown, a story of family among stranger that became The Sweet Flypaper of Life, the landmark photography book released in 1955, a feat of publishing to which countless artists and authors continue to aspire.
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The Sweet Flypaper of Life has been chosen as the starting point for Family Pictures, a group exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, opening February 16, 2018, that spans a period of 60 years. Bringing together an intergenerational mix of some of the greatest African American photographers of our time – with works from John Edmonds, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Lyle Ashton Harris, Deana Lawson, Lorraine O’Grady, Gordon Parks, Sondra Perry, Ming Smith, and Carrie Mae Weems – the exhibition illustrated the ways in which family is a vital force in shaping the black community from the Civil Rights era to the present moment.
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Hailing from Washington, D.C., John Edmonds is one of the youngest artists included in Family Pictures. Now 28, the Yale MFA graduate is a rising star on the photography scene, best known for creating a series of portraits that reveal a poignant and potent sense of intimacy that occurs in the act of creating art.
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Growing up in the Christian church, being queer became a source of inner conflict that drove Edmonds in search of an understanding of self, of queer blackness, and of a place where he could be among family – a family he built himself through the act of making portraits. His photographs featured in the exhibition, made between 2012 and 2017, illustrate how one’s passions can create an empowered space for agency, community, and self-actualisation.
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Edmonds, who will be publishing his own book with Capricious later this spring, speaks with us about how to create a portrait of your family in every sense of the word.
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Biker Jacket, 2017. Photography John Edmonds.