Photography

Lali Khalid is an immigrant artist grappling with issues of identity, home, family and diaspora. In her photographs captured over a span of ten years, she illustrates complex challenges exploring new ways of retaining her identity in an environment of changing ideologies and perspectives. Khalid successfully bridges two ends of spectrum: the fading past and the vague future. The images viewed without a predetermined perception explain the evolving narrative through the veiled stories imbedded in them.

A riveting photo journal documenting the pandemic by notable and noteworthy actor Richard Edson. It’s the stuff of science fiction and dystopian nightmares. But the writers and doomsayers were right. And here we are. Each of us who have lived through Year Zero having our own stories to tell. This is my story, in photographs, and texts. 

In the 1990s New York, the information Superhighway was a deer path through the vast woods. A time when Paparazzi wasn’t a bad word, and Agents, Managers and PR people would invite the photographers to their events in hopes that we would photograph their celebrity client to run in the gossip section of New York City's nightlife publications. I was a photographer in search of celebrities and had to speculate, guess, and make judgment calls about where and when they would make an appearance. I networked with Doormen, Groupies, Party Crashers, Chauffeurs, Editors, Writers, Business Owners, and Bartenders, and that was to receive information which was spotty at best. I knew that certain letters (CLS) on the license plate meant a celebrity car service as opposed to a regular black car. I knew the back doors of the Plaza hotel, the escalator in the rear of the Ritz Carlton, where the SNL cast would go for drinks after wrap, or when the guests arrived for the Letterman show, and the side door they would go through. After I captured the image the celebrity portrait was published in my column in Black Book magazine. The negatives, the leftover prints, or the slides went into a shoebox and a cardboard container and was forgotten. Life was good, then Princess Di happened, and we all had to stand behind a barrier and then the iPhone happened and now we are known as the paparazzi. Then the Twin Towers fell, and NYC went through a collective mourning. American Royalty is comprised of the images in the shoebox, all shot on film and with Celebrities who welcomed my lens and the attention. 

‘Pieces of a Man’ brings together 25 years of street photographs by noted American photographer Jamel Shabazz.“Beginning in Brooklyn’s tight-knit neighborhoods, including his own, Jamel Shabazz captured a true reflection of people of color now revered as a form of social commentary. His work resonates around the world because it is authentic. He has the authority to speak for us and yet he maintains genuine humility and respect for his people. From the streets of Brooklyn to Europe to Africa, Jamel’s work is inclusive and compassionate without imposing his views on how people should represent themselves. He gives his subjects control over their own image, and in that you see the dignity that he sees in them; turning everyday people into icons. While some celebrate an era or style, Jamel reminds us to celebrate the people, not just the image.”

The monograph Dead Lost or Displaced documents the lives of Louisiana natives mostly in and around New Orleans and Baton Rouge. This book is dedicated to the innocent, who either are Dead, Lost or Displaced due to the events that occurred after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. Dead Lost or Displaced features excerpts from the New Orleans Times Picayune article titled: “Peace Among the Ruins” by Pulitzer prize winner Chris Rose author of 1 Dead in Attic, which is a collection of stories recounting the first four harrowing months of life in New Orleans after Katrina. The book went on to become a New York Times Bestseller.