Seeing photos on paper

I really have this deep belief that images can change the world—Amy Sherald.*

*Lovely 15-minute video about Amy Sherald arrived today from Art21.

While I was ill, I curated my photographs back to 2006, and I splurged on a beautiful Blurb book I call Keepers: Vol. 1, Landscapes and Faces. I have a second volume of Social Justice Photography laid out, but I’ll have to wait a few months to save up for it. I’m going with the large landscape size, 13 x 11, and it’s very expensive (over $150 unless a sale pops up), but I love arranging photographs in ways that allow them to “talk” to each other. This is the first time I’ve ever seen prints of most of these, and it’s a revelation and a source of deep satisfaction. I see why Amy Sherald loves Black & White, and why she paints Black people in gray. “…Not about race first…these paintings are about our interior lives.” 

I’m not sure how images can change the world if nobody sees them (note to Vivian Maier’s ghost), but Vivian didn’t have Blipfoto to share hers with, and her poverty was more extreme than mine.