Teressa, mid-laugh

Teressa Raiford invited me to the office, work room, and gallery of Don’t Shoot PDX this afternoon. Generous donors have provided the space, and currently in the gallery is an exhibit of oil paintings dedicated to young Black people killed for the crime of being Black. Each painting is a still life: a toy gun and some bark chips in memory of Tamir Rice, killed on a playground while holding a toy gun; battered running shoes for Ahmaud Arbery, killed while jogging; etc. They were painted by an art student who brought them to Teressa when he saw that Don’t Shoot has a gallery, and he surmised correctly that his paintings and their principles are a fit.

Don’t Shoot PDX is having a tenth anniversary celebration this coming May, and they want to display some poster-size prints of photographs I made during their early years. I’m honored, but I worry that the digital versions I made a decade ago, when I was just learning digital photography, are not large enough for prints of the size they have in mind, but a University printing press will be making the prints, so Teressa thinks they can make it work. 

I’ve posted many photos of her, including one edited by Walking Marj. I chose this one because it’s so unusually joyful. The Extra is a more familiar expression, and I loved what the light in her office was doing.