Danielle Scruggs | Photography: Journal

Red Line Graffiti

2012-01-12T00:04:00.002-05:00

Through sheer happenstance, I recently shot Red Line Graffiti for DC Deli Magazine. They were a blast to hang out with (even at 7 A.M.!) and are another reminder of why I've grown to love D.C. the way I do.

Check out their EP here and live at Black Cat ~~this Sunday~~ February 15th if you can.

Twenty Twelve

2012-01-03T23:55:00.004-05:00

Merry New Year. I've been reflecting a lot on the past year and what I want this year to be like. I don't want to put pressure on myself by setting a lot of resolutions that I will probably break by January 8th. However, I really feel that I had somewhat of a breakthrough in 2011, artistically and professionally speaking. And I definitely want to keep that momentum going and create a better balance between my day job and working my own personal projects. And I want to push myself and my work, to keep digging deeper.

I also realize I need to be a lot easier on myself, which will probably be my most daunting task for 2012 and beyond. Somehow, along the way in my 20-some odd years on this earth, I conflated being gentle on myself with being complacent. And those aren't the same things at all. Taking a compliment doesn't mean I won't keep pushing myself and grow. Doing kind things for myself is okay, even if my to-do list isn't finished or I made some mistakes at work. I've also come to realize that making mistakes isn't the end of the world. My dad says if you aren't making mistakes, you're probably not really doing anything.

Anyway. I'm very much looking forward to 2012. It's going to be an electric year, I have a feeling.

Of interest:

+Specter Magazine published an essay of mine on The Roots' latest album and That Infamous Forbes Article

+Mambu Badu is accepting entries till Jan. 5th. (THIS Thursday!)

+I updated my portfolio; check it.

+Kameelah Rasheed's stills of BEND, a short film by up and coming auteur Terence Nance.

+Allison McDaniel's latest photos. I love her portraiture; holler at her if you need headshots.

+All film everything. I think I'm going to order a bunch of film and carry around my Pentax K1000 everywhere for a while like I did in high school (and most of college).

Art in Action

2011-11-23T00:53:00.001-05:00

Hello. I will be showing work along with nine other DC artists for this show. Please come through on Dec. 1st if you can!*

*I'm not sure anyone's even reading this anymore, considering I haven't updated in two months.

I've been busy with the following:
+Working
+Shooting images for a top-secret project I can't tell you about yet
+Working
+Shot images for these folks
+Collaborating with Alice and Kameelah on Mambu Badu projects
+Did I mention working?

I'll be back soon. Not sure when, but soon.

Mambu Badu: Accepting Entries for our 2nd Issue!

2011-09-23T04:53:00.000-04:00

We are seeking work for our second annual publication. Our first issue,Memory, garnered positive reviews for the photographers featured:Nikita Gale, Sheree Swann, Tonika Johnson, Jen Everett, Yodith Dammlash and Nkechi Ebubedike.

We are officially a year old and we invite you to submit your work for our second publication. There is no planned theme for this issue; we’re looking for collage, conceptual, documentary and all work in between. Please submit the following by December 20, 2011:

A complete body of work (8-14 images), in either jpg or gif format.
IMAGE FILE SPECIFICATIONS:
1. JPGS at 72ppi and 700 pixels FOR THE LONGEST EDGE – For a horizontal picture = width, for a vertical picture = height
2. Please “save for web” OR make each file under 200kbs they will only be online and so do not need to be large files.
3. Please do NOT incude borders or watermarks.
FILE NAMING:
Please name the files with your FIRST name and LAST INITIAL and a number. No spaces, dashes or non-number or letters. Example for Letecia Sanchez: LeteciaS1.jpg, LeteciaS2.jpg etc
COVER LETTER:
In the cover letter field, please provide a concise description of your series. Please do not exceed 350 words.

As always, we are approaching our art and this collective with a with a humble heart, a curious nature, and a persevering spirit. We hope that you will join us on this exciting journey.

Please don’t hesitate to email us or leave a comment below if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

Peace,

Allison + Kameelah + Danielle

Print sale!

2011-08-24T15:58:00.001-04:00

Also, if you've seen something else on my site that you would like a print of, don't hesitate to reach out: danielle.scruggs@gmail.com Thank you!

Onward.

2011-08-17T20:19:00.000-04:00

all photos © Danielle Scruggs

Installation shots

2011-08-13T23:37:00.001-04:00

all photos © Danielle Scruggs

Honfleur Gallery, 5th Annual East of the River exhibit, August 2011

East of the River @ Honfleur Gallery

2011-08-08T00:34:00.000-04:00

© Queshia B.

© Queshia B.

© Danielle Scruggs

© Danielle Scruggs

See more opening night photos here, taken by yours truly and my friend Queshia, who commandeered my camera for most of the night.

I just want to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who was able to make it on Friday night. Exhibiting work is always a thrilling (yet slightly nerve-wracking) experience and most of all, I like being able to share my work with others and discuss what they see in it too. Friday night was beautiful.

And in case you weren't able to make it, never fear! The exhibit will be up through September 9th.

Honfleur Gallery
Hours: Noon-5PM, Tuesday-Friday, 11AM-5PM, Saturday
Address: 1241 Good Hope Road SE
Dates: Aug. 5-Sept. 9

P.S. Make sure you also check out Thomas Sayers Ellis' solo exhibit (Un)Lock It: the Percussive People in the Go-Go Pocket at the Gallery at Vivid Solutions, just a few blocks away from Honfleur.

Gallery at Vivid Solutions
Hours: Noon-5PM, Tuesday-Friday, 11AM-5PM, Saturday
Address: 2208 MLK Jr Ave
Dates: Aug. 5-Oct. 7

Collective (R)evolution

2011-07-23T20:56:00.000-04:00

I'll be showing a few prints at the Collective (R)evolution show at The Fridge on Friday, July 29. My friend Tasha Webb, a great painter, will be showing work here as well. Come through and support this fundraiser for the DC Youth Slam Team!

And don't forget, I'll be showing some work (photos & text pieces) at the East of the River exhibit Friday, Aug. 5 at Honfleur Gallery in Anacostia. Hope to see you there as well.

East of the River and other good news

2011-07-11T21:48:00.001-04:00

Yours truly will be showing prints at the East of the River exhibition at Honfleur Gallery in Washington, DC. The show opens on Friday, August 5, which is just one month away! I'm terribly excited to be a part of this exhibit and if you live in the area, I hope you'll come by for the opening reception. And if you can't make the opening, the show will be up through September 16.

Full list of artists:
Marlon Norman
Jonathan Edwards
Danielle Scruggs
Jon Malis
Deborah Terry
Lark Catoe-Emerson

The show was juried by an esteemed panel (to say the least!): documentary photographer Susanna Raab, visual artist Renee Stout and Stephen Bennett Phillips, director of the fine arts program at the Federal Reserve Board.

In other news:
Have you bookmarked Mambu Badu yet? Have you 'liked' us on Facebook? Are you following us on Twitter? We have a ton of new ventures slated for 2011 and 2012, and I wouldn't want you to miss out. What are you waiting for? Check us out today!

Also, check out my latest posts for the Liberator Magazine and Innervisions:

+This (Black) American Life / "There's no dialogue for strange Black people." (A brief rumination on photographer Carla Aaron Lopez's work)

+What if there were no more art galleries? (On Kesha Bruce and 6x6)

+Sweat: J*DaVeY x Elevator Fight (photos!)

"Time cannot be managed. The only thing you can manage is how you choose to spend your time."

2011-07-01T07:00:00.028-04:00

Welcome to the first stop on the official 6x6 Summer Blog Tour! I recently had the opportunity to interview artist/arts advocate Kesha Bruce again (I interviewed her for the Liberator Magazine some time ago), this time regarding her new venture, the 6x6 Arts Festival. We also talked about how artists can create a more opportunities for themselves, rather than waiting to be discovered by a gallery or editorial client. I gained some insights on where I need to improve and push myself in my own work. Read more below:

How, in your view, can artists create a better work/life balance?
Kesha Bruce: I get this question all the time from my consulting clients, so I can tell you right now that my answer is going to be unpopular. Here it is: Realize that you cannot have it all, and understand that time cannot be managed. The only thing you can manage is how you choose to spend your time. (Emphasis mine.)
Make a list of the things in your life that are truly the most important to you and bring you the most joy. Then beg, borrow, steal, and fight like hell to squeeze a little bit of those things into every day. Even if you only get to spend 10 minutes a day making art, 10 minutes is better than no minutes!

What is one concrete action an artist can take right now to establish a more fulfilling/successful career?
KB: I wish I had an easier answer, but every successful art career is built on a combination of actions---and combined consistently. There isn’t one magic thing you can do that will transform your career. If there were---we’d all be doing it! Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work that way. All of your marketing efforts must work together and they need to be consistent. Meaning they need to be planned and scheduled. And you need to commit to repeating them over a certain period of time.

There are no magic bullets or easy formulas. A successful art career is built on a system of actions that you work and implement day by day ---every day---in order to be constantly generating new work and interest in your work that will lead to sales.

Could you just talk a little about what inspired 6x6 and what you hope to accomplish with it?

KB: The idea for 6x6 came one night during a discussion I had with my friend and fellow artist Charlie Grosso. We were having one of those long involved discussions about art, and how it's bought and sold and what we would do differently. By the end of the evening we have decided that instead of just talking about the way thing should be, that we should actually go do something about it.

The whole point producing 6x6 is to lead by example. The entire event is a blue-print for how artists can work together to help each other promote their art. At the end of 6x6, we’ll take the video footage, workshop notes, and podcast recordings and package it all up into an affordable, easily downloadable, step-by-step "How-To" guide so that independent artists can learn exactly how they can plan and re-create their own version of 6x6 in their own art communities.

What are some key differences between the traditional gallery system and the 6x6/Baang + Burne approach?
KB: Well for starters, we have no set location, so we organize events wherever and whenever we want in any format we choose. Secondly, our contract with each Baang and Burne artist is non-exclusive and each artist gets to tell us what percentage they want to pay us for each sale---which is pretty unheard of within the traditional gallery system.

But honestly the biggest difference is our simple no-nonsense attitude towards art sales. We don’t go out and try to find art collectors. We create them by building relationships between art lovers and artists. It really is that simple.

To learn more about 6x6, read Kesha’s weekly articles on art, art marketing, and
creativity and to download a free copy of her guide “The 5 Step Art Career Make-Over” visit her blog at http://www.keshabrucestudio.com/.

Sweat: J*Davey x Elevator Fight

2011-06-29T21:05:00.001-04:00

photos © Danielle Scruggs

Updated my portfolio's Live section with photos from Monday night's sweaty, energetic J*Davey + Elevator Fight show at Black Cat. Check it!

Speak.

2011-06-13T09:58:00.001-04:00

Portfolio update

2011-06-12T09:59:00.000-04:00

Updated my website. I added new work in Self Portraits and The District (under Projects) and a new announcement under Upcoming/Recent Exhibits.

More will be added to Self-Portraits soon.

26.

2011-06-05T23:37:00.000-04:00

So far, it looks like:

A jog through Northeast DC. Taking photos. Having a close friend take you out to brunch. Sipping drinks and people-watching outside. Stopping by a stoop sale. Cleaning your apartment while dancing to A Tribe Called Quest blaring loudly from your speakers. Going back outside to wander and shoot during the magic hour. Receiving calls from mom and dad. Reading birthday well wishes from friends and acquaintances, old and new. New episodes of This American Life and Radiolab. Baking chocolate chip cookies. Feeling happy and pretty and hopeful for the first time in quite a while.

Grateful I made it another revolution around the sun.

Peace.

2011-06-02T23:54:00.000-04:00

Gil Scott-Heron

(April 1, 1949-May 27, 2011)

Geronimo Pratt

(September 13, 1947 – June 2, 2011)

In less than a week, two beacons of light have passed on. (Look them up; I don't feel like I need to explain who they are and why they mean so much to me and so many people the world over.) Too soon, in my eyes. To give you some perspective: look at these men's ages. My dad is 56. Passing on your early 60s seems cruel. Like your life didn't end as much as it was truncated.

Per Pierre Bennu, I'm left wondering what my legacy will be when I pass on. And with that said, I know I have a lot of work to do.

Film.

2011-05-19T20:07:00.000-04:00

While my camera is still out for repairs, I've returned to shooting on film. I still need to get three more rolls developed and I, for the life of me, can't remember what I shot on them.

I can't wait to get my digital camera back. I can't shoot as much on film due to the cost and I feel odd not having a camera with me every day.

#Five3

2011-05-03T05:56:00.002-04:00

(Or, #Four26, One Week Later.)

I alluded to this a few times on the blog but never really talked about it, mainly because there just wasn't any time to collect my thoughts. This year, I supported Alan Page in his run for the At-Large City Council seat. It was my first time getting involved in local politics. The special election was held one week ago today, hence the Four/26 + Five3 language.

On Election Day, I woke up very early (despite having gone to bed very late due to pre-Election Day jitters) and cast my vote in the gorgeous, early 20th-century auditorium inside McKinley Tech High School. Two of the poll watchers complimented me on my earrings. I then walked around Eckington, Bloomingdale, Columbia Heights and Capitol Hill, reminding people to vote and asking them to elect Page.

I met Betty Hunter, a great-grandmother, who invited me into her home and told me about her life in Eckington, how she had lived in DC since 1949 but was originally from Alabama.

I met an older gentleman down the street from McKinley Tech who said it was "time for some new blood" on the council and told me he would make sure to vote.

I ran into one of the candidates' mailman and a clothing shop owner on 11th Street, and the three of us got into a debate/discussion about the past 30 years of District politics.

I met a child, a sweet, adorable three (maybe four?) year old boy who looked at me, said "Hi!" as if he were greeting an old friend and hugged me tight. It was a completely unexpected moment. One of the reasons I love being around kids is that they are so open and honest with their affection. It was the highlight of my day, to be honest.

There were green and yellow and royal blue and orange campaign signs everywhere---on lampposts, on yards, in front of polling stations---representing the nine candidates in the race. I saw a few people here and there with 'I Voted' stickers but most people didn't even know there was an election going on; let alone who they were inclined to vote for.

And so it went until 8pm, when the polls officially closed. We took advantage of Election Day specials: free eponymous cupcakes at Red Velvet and discounted beers (Yuengling and Harp's Lager, respectively) at Capital City Diner. We talked politics and poll numbers with the Diner's owner. We sipped our beers and listened to soul music and looked at the results on phones and netbooks.

We learned that Vincent Orange won. And just like that, it was over. The grueling schedules, the ups and downs, the paperwork, the glad-handing, the forums, but also meeting people from all walks of life, engaging with the other candidates and their volunteers, the crash courses in the granular details of local politics...over.

We left the diner, promising to come back, thanking the owner for his hospitality.

As we walked down H Street, I felt a mix of emotions. Sad that the candidate I supported didn't win. Apprehensive about the direction in which the Council will take this city. Surprise at the realization of how much I've grown to care about and truly love this city, this city I've always felt so ambivalent about, a city I thought I would never return to after graduating college five years ago this month.

The end of the campaign has also meant the end of a lot of other things, things I don't want to go into detail about just now. But I'm starting to accept that some things just have to end. And endings don't always have to be terrible. Endings can lead to new beginnings. New adventures. New insights. New paths.

So.

The future is precarious right now (for a whole host of reasons that I'm still processing), but that's just life, isn't it?

Still, I look forward to what the future holds.

Mambu Badu: The inaugural edition is here

2011-05-01T22:16:00.000-04:00

(Click photo to launch magazine.)

Due to some technical difficulties, we’re a day late but the inaugural edition of the Mambu Badu PDF magazine is now live! Thank you to everyone who submitted work, to the photographers who appear in these pages, to people who retweeted us, liked us on Facebook and sent us words of encouragement through letters. It’s much appreciated and we’re grateful for the support.

We love feedback so if you have any comments, questions, or concerns, don’t hesitate to let us know: themambubadu [at] gmail [dot] com.

Happy May Day!

We are definitely planning future calls for entry so be sure to subscribe to our posts, follow us on Twitter (@mambubadu), ‘like’ us on Facebook, and email us (themambubadu [at] gmail [dot] com) to stay up-to-date on the latest news from Mambu Badu.

April 30th + other updates

2011-04-07T03:19:00.000-04:00

Mark your calendars! The inaugural edition of Mambu Badu’s web-magazine launches on April 30, 2011!

We are definitely planning future calls for entry so be sure to subscribe to our posts, follow us on Twitter (@mambubadu), ‘like’ us on Facebook, and email us (themambubadu@gmail.com) to stay up-to-date on the latest news from Mambu Badu.

In other news:
+Attended the Black Portrait Symposium last weekend at NYU and I'm so glad I did. It provided some much needed clarity and energy. And it was great to be there with the wonderful ladies of Mambu Badu, Alice Wonder and Kameelah.

+F-Stop Magazine published two of my photos in its latest issue, "All About Me". Grateful for the honor.

+Headed to Boston this weekend for what should be an interesting conference: National Conference on Media Reform. I also hope I'll be able to see the 54th Massachusetts Memorial sculpture while I'm there.

Where no two days are ever the same

2011-03-04T22:46:00.003-05:00

Hi.

I've been filming video segments for What's Good DC?, shooting photos and videos of behind-the-scenes action of What's Good DC?, running digital media arts clubs at Anacostia High and Washington Metropolitan High school, attending a White House/Grammy Museum function, applying for some choice opportunities within the visual arts, building websites, working on Mambu Badu (me, Kameelah and Alice selected photographers and are working on a PDF magazine) and coordinating a political campaign.

Oh, and I'm still taking photos, of course. I'm not quite done with my self-portraits series. I still have quite a few to upload and edit; there's video to share as well. Soon come.

Of interest: (The-completely-random-list-of-cool-things-I've-come-across-as-I-catch-up-on-the-Interwebs-edition)

+Four/26: Why You Should Care About the upcoming At-Large City Council Special Election
+Joy the Baker: Excellent recipes and great slice-of-life stories from an L.A. foodie. (Her Eggnog Pancakes and Brown Butter Winter Citrus Pancakes are my top two pancake recipes now.)
+Sheen, Beck, or Qaddafi?: I don't mean to make light of what is happening in Libya right now but this is fascinating, in the same way car accidents can be.
+The new Radiohead video: What else needs to be said?
+Warsan Shire: Just read her work. You'll be happy you did, I promise.

(Re)New.

2011-02-20T10:00:00.001-05:00

Things have not slowed down, but I realize how important it is to just make the time to put my proverbial house in order. That said, I revamped my portfolio site a bit. I created a "Projects" section, featuring all the series I've worked on since 2007. I added a concert section as well as design work and a few selected writings on the visual arts. I'll be making a few more tweaks in the coming weeks as well.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Self.

2011-02-16T22:45:00.000-05:00

The 5-Step Art Career Makeover

2011-02-07T00:52:00.002-05:00

I came across this e-book tonight and it is right on time: The 5-Step Art Career Makeover:
http://keshabruce.com/downloads.html

It's time to get to work in a major way.

Kesha Bruce is an American mixed-media artist living in France. In addition to her
studio work, Kesha is also Director of Baang and Burne Contemporary, which
produces one-night-only art events in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Her artwork and ideas on art and creativity can be found at www.KeshaBruce.com

Concert Fundraiser at Ras Uptown Feb. 4

2011-02-01T00:14:00.000-05:00

Flyer design by yours truly.

Press release for Friday's concert fundraiser for Alan Page, DC City Council Candidate, follows below:

[On] Friday, February 4th at Ras (4809 Georgia Ave NW), The Package will be rocking a fundraiser for PKG co-owner Alan Page (a/k/a Spirit, lovingly dubbed “The Suit”), who is on a quest to become an at-large city councilperson in DC!

This would be a huge step forward for the music community in Washington DC and for youth/progressive politics in general. Alan is running as the sole Green Party candidate against seventeen Democrats, one party-nonaffliated Independent and one Republican.

The special election is April 26th, but the party is February 4th! DC hip-hop veterans Head Roc and Born I (also known as Born Infinite) will also be rocking the stage! It’s all a part of the Uptown Friday Nights series that links progressive musicians with progressive causes!

We’re facing a $600 million budget shortfall, but we can’t balance the budget on the backs of the poor. We can also make our tax system more fair, so that those earning $41,000/year aren’t in the same tax bracket as those earning $41 billion/year (as is the case now). We all have to share the pain to share the gain.

Let’s work together to save our (d)iverse (c)ity!

Find out more about Alan’s platform at http://alanpagedc.com
And come rock out with us next Friday!

Thanks!
In solidarity,
Alan (Spirit) a/k/a me!

Dilla: All the Way to Heaven

2011-01-27T00:53:00.001-05:00

There are several tributes to the late, great James "Jay Dee"/"J Dilla" Yancey floating around, but All the Way to Heaven is one of the best I've heard.

Produced by Theory, one-third of the DC-based hip-hop group The Package, All the Way to Heaven revisits and reconstructs the original songs Dilla sampled for his most famous hits, including The Pharcyde's "Runnin'" and Slum Village's "Get Dis Money."

Still Runnin

{*}

Blue Collar

{*}

The result is a lovingly crafted letter to J Dilla, a person who had a major impact on a generation of hip-hop producers, MCs and aficionados alike.

All the Way to Heaven (download)

(originally appeared on the Liberator.)

Feature on Recession Art

2011-01-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

Go here to read the full article. Thanks to the whole Recession Arts team for constantly supporting artists who have shown with them!

Another look at MLK

2011-01-22T17:14:00.001-05:00

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

I love this photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. because it reminds me of his humanity. King was not a saint. He was a man with a radical (yes, radical) vision and was deeply committed to social justice and eradicating injustice not just in the United States, but as it occurred throughout the global community. We do men and women like King a great disservice when we put them on a pedestal. Not only does it take the bite out of what they stood for and gave up their lives for, it also creates distance between them and us.

We think we are too ordinary. We think there is no way we can do the work that King and his contemporaries did. We think we have to perfect our diction first. We think we have to go to church every Sunday (or mosque or temple, etc.) first. Pull up our pants first. Get a job first. Make enough money first. Earn enough bona fides first. And so on and so forth.

But none of that really matters. What matters is being so deeply committed to real, effective, lasting change, that you are not afraid to put in the work to make that happen and, perhaps most importantly, you are not afraid of the consequences of that work.

And one does not need to be perfect to do any of those things.

I’ll leave you with a few more photos that illustrate King’s humanity …

1956 mugshot of a 27-year-old King, taken shortly after the Montgomery bus boycott

King with his father and son, 1963 Photo by Richard Avedon

The Kings leave court in Montgomery, Ala. after Dr. King was found guilty of conspiracy to boycott city buses.

Photo by Gene Herrick/Associated Press

Cross posted from here.

Four Walls, Five Women Artist Talk // Closing Reception

2011-01-04T07:00:00.006-05:00

Come if you can this Sunday!

Live From Planet Earth: Brooklyn #0014

2011-01-02T20:12:00.000-05:00

(Flyer designed by the awesome Kameelah Rasheed)

open "bar" w/ food
{bring some to share, too}
+complimentary copies of liberator 9.1
$10 donation
After the hype of New Years Eve has died down you can either keep the party going or get that do-over you need, because we'll be celebrating righteously in Brooklyn with James Brown and The Isley Brothers as our guides that next weekend.

We all know James Brown set foundations stood on by everyone from Public Enemy "Night Train" to Pete Rock "T.R.O.Y.", to Biggie/The Notorious BIG "Dreams", to Mary J. Blige "Everything", to Black Moon "Enta Da Stage", to En Vogue "Hold On" & "My Lovin' You're Never Gonna Get It", to Alicia Keys "Fallin", to Brandy "I Wanna Be Down", to Blackstreet "No Diggity" and, yes, even Nicki Minaj "Save Me".

But The Isley Brothers got plenty of legacy to claim as well, from Ice Cube "Today Was A Good Day", to A Tribe Called Quest "Bonita Applebum", to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony "Buddah Lovers", back to Biggie again "Big Poppa", to Keith Murray "The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World" , to Da Brat "Funkdafied" , to Tupac "Bury Me A G" and, yes, even Ludacris and Trey Songz "Sex Room".

Along with performances by soul singer Nicholas Ryan Gant and delta blues/rock band The Wolfhustlers we'll be exploring all of this historical territory thoroughly, curated by our Earth-native tour guide DJ Jah Medicine. We'll also be gettin down to original hits from Sir. Brown and The Isleys all night long.

Aside from celebrating inspiration and good people right here on good, old planet Earth, the other reason we're gathering is to raise funds for the magazine. This is a house party event hosted in a huge apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn by two good brothers so we ask that we all respect the space and treat it like our own home. An open "bar" will be in effect with free drinks and free food from Spicy Wild Mango, but we encourage you to bring something to share as well, pot-luck family style. Complimentary copies of Liberator 9.1 will also be available.

We do ask that you kindly RSVP, since this is a limited capacity space.

related event: Jan 6-8
Conference for The State of African American and African Diaspora Studies
at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

My Liberator Magazine people are throwing a fundraiser/house party/funk session on Saturday! RSVP here.

Since my last update...

2010-12-07T09:00:00.001-05:00

...A brief jaunt to San Francisco, buried in work for the Public Media Corps, art show reception at DC Arts Center, presenting at PubCamp, my first time going to FedEx Field to see the R-Words, meetings, meetings, and more meetings, shooting a town hall meeting at THEARC, another taping at WHUT (three shows in one day, goodness) playing Clara Barton for past week for The Writer, applying to more calls for entries, following Art Basel Miami (and plotting how to go for the 2011 edition), finally getting back into blogging/writing for the Liberator and Charm City Current, reviewing the submissions rolling in for Mambu Badu (extended deadline: December 17th) ...

Once things settle down (which will hopefully happen soon?) I'll talk more in-depth and more cogently about the whirlwind life has been for the past eight weeks or so.

Inside the Collector's Studio, November 30

2010-11-10T20:49:00.000-05:00

Do you envy the folks who seem to have it all together? Great house, cute mate, stunning art on their walls... Ever wondered how to start small and build up your collection of artwork, what to look for, how to make good investments? On Tuesday, November 30th, two of DC's hottest young collectors, Philippa Hughes (The Pinkline Project) and Darryl Atwell (CAS51), will give insight into the benefits and challenges of collecting art. The interview will be followed by tour of "Furious Dancing: The Exhibition" with the curators, Sim&Son, and some of the artists.

Ready to buy? All art in the current exhibit is for sale and will be up through January 2011. Pieces range from as low as $150 - $2,000.

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

**RSVP REQUIRED TO sj2.arts@gmail.com**

One of my prints is in this show and I will be on hand for this discussion on Tuesday, November 30. I hope you can come through if you can!

Coming up: FOCUS GROUP: Four Walls, Four Five Women

2010-11-10T07:00:00.001-05:00

Official show postcard. I'm excited. Here's more info about the show and the talented women I'll be showing some of my work with:

Four Walls, ~~Four~~ Five Women
Presented by Black Artists of DC (BADC)

Featuring work by Jamea Richmond Edwards, Danielle Scruggs, Natalie Lord, Kristen Hayes, Amber Robles-Gordon

Curated by Zoma Wallace

FOCUS GROUP: Four Walls, Five Women seeks to spark a visual discussion between artworks created by Black women and a verbal dialogue between those who view and purchase them. The topic of discussion is material. What are artists using? What materials do they feel drawn to? How does Black femininity affect or reflect itself in the chosen material(s), if at all? How does femininity affect the delivery and/or reception of the message?

The voices of the women artists in this exhibition are heard primarily through material form. Embracing both visual and verbal discussion, FOCUS GROUP: Four Walls, Five Women hopes to determine how effectively unique material languages are deciphered/valued/appreciated/acquired by a universal audience and market.

FOCUS GROUP: Four Walls, Five Women is the second in a series of collaborations between DC Arts Center and Black Artists of DC. The purpose of Black Artists of DC (BADC) is to create a Black artists community to promote, develop and validate the culture, artistic expressions and aspirations of past and present artists of Black-Afrikan ancestry in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

Opening Reception Friday November 19, 7-9pm

District of Columbia Arts Center
2338 18th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
http://www.dcartscenter.org/submit_gallery_future.htm

I don't know what to title this.

2010-10-09T00:14:00.001-04:00

Maybe it's the changing weather.
Maybe it's the night time coming earlier and earlier.
Maybe it's the never-ending deadlines.
Maybe it's the somewhat disturbing news I received when I went back home a couple of weeks ago.

I don't know what it is but I've been feeling out of sorts as of late. Knocked off course and not really knowing how to right myself. I feel as though I need a retreat. It might be time to get away from computers, away from the city, away from cell phones, maybe even take some time away from my baby (that's my camera; not that I've been taking a whole lot of photos lately.)

One of the best days I had was when I was in Chicago a few weeks ago. I walked from my parents' house to the lakefront. The sky was gray and the air was damp and chilly. What struck me was the roar of the waves as they crashed against the shore. I must have taken it for granted when I lived there, because it seemed louder than I remembered it. The waves seemed more ferocious than I remembered them. It was such a calming feeling, hearing the waves and seeing the sky and clouds stretch out to infinity in front of me. I felt so small...

I can't explain it very well. I just know that I felt somewhat at peace that day and I would like to have that feeling again.

It's strange. The same things that have been so exciting in the past few months have also been draining me; making me anxious and slightly unsure as to whether I can really pull this off; if I can really accomplish everything that's been placed in my path. Deep down, I know I can. But that knowledge doesn't prevent that unwelcome house guest Self-Doubt from coming in and settling down.

Tonight! Furious Dancing opening at Busboys & Poets, 9/29

2010-09-29T16:10:00.003-04:00

One of my photos (not the one above, but it does show illustrate some furious dancing) will be included in the group show, Hard Times Require Furious Dancing at the Busboys and Poets on 5th & K, with a reception for the artists tonight, Wednesday, September 29th from 6-8 p.m.

Busboys and Poets
1025 5th Street, NW
Washington, DC
On view: September 29, 2010 – January 9, 2011

I hope to see you there if you can make it!

PBS MediaShift feature.

2010-09-22T19:29:00.001-04:00

A quick note before I pack for a much-needed mini-vacay: two of my photos were featured in an excellent PBS MediaShift article about the Public Media Corps and the work we've been doing in D.C. thus far. Click on the image above to read it!

Where I've been.

2010-09-21T23:34:00.001-04:00

I have good news to share: I'll be showing one of my prints at Hard Times Require Furious Dancing, an art exhibit and celebration of Alice Walker's latest book of poetry. The opening reception (free and open to the public) is Sept. 29, 6-8pm at Busboys and Poets on 5th & K in Washington, D.C. There will also be a "Furious Dance Party" on Oct. 2, 8pm-1am at the same location. (This is a ticketed event.)

Also, I teamed up with the tremendously talented photographers Kameelah Rasheed and Allison McDaniel to form Mambu Badu, a photography collective focused on finding, nurturing and promoting emerging black women photographers. We currently have an open call for photographs based on the theme of Memory.

I'm so excited and humbled to be a part of both experiences. Join me at Busboys next Wednesday and over at Mambu Badu, won't you?

Reflections.

2010-08-20T02:27:00.000-04:00

We often cause ourselves suffering, by wanting only to live in a world of valleys, a world without struggle and difficulty, a world that is flat, plain, consistent. We resist the truth of difference and diversity. We resist acknowledging that our constants exist within a framework where everything is always changing. We resist change. When we are able to face the reality of highs and lows embracing both as necessary for our full development and self-actualization, we can feel that interior well-being that is the foundation of inner peace.

---bell hooks

About three years ago, I wrote about having the feeling that I was standing on the edge of a cliff. That I was about to be pushed off, or I would jump off, but the point was, everything was about to change. At the time I wrote that, I was 21, living with my parents, had been rejected by every graduate photography program I applied for, and had no idea what, exactly, my next move would be. I just kept taking photos every day, reading various photography blogs, spending money I didn't really have on lenses and photo books, browsing paintings and photo exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago and wondering if I had made the right decisions.

Soon after I wrote that, I was accepted into the graduate digital arts program at the Maryland Institute College of Art. I moved to Baltimore, a city where I knew exactly one person. I had one of the most frustrating, scary, thrilling and ultimately rewarding years I've experienced thus far. It was a year where I focused exclusively on photography and art; where I was surrounded by an almost palpable creative energy every day. After that year, I moved back to D.C. (well, a suburb of D.C. really) and began a life, that, on paper looked great.

But in reality, it was killing my spirit. And a lot of things happened in those two years that I wish I could take back, that I wish I could do over, that I wish I could have prevented from happening.

I spent a lot of time feeling down.

Low.

Heavy.

And then, on New Year's Eve 2009, whilst drinking mulled apple cider and simmering black-eyed peas in my slow cooker, that standing-on-the-edge-of-a-cliff feeling returned. And I realized two very important things:

a) I simply was not happy, and
b) It was up to me to change that.

I realized that I needed to become a lot more intentional with everything in my life---my photography, with my writing and editing duties for the Liberator Magazine, my health (physical and emotional), connecting with my family, cultivating my friendships...just everything.

And I have. I've made some good friends this year. I allowed myself to have fun, to enjoy life. I moved from the suburbs to D.C. proper. I was accepted into a fellowship program that has already been such a rewarding and dynamic experience, despite the speed bumps and glitches I've encountered. I'm working on a Big! Exciting! Collaborative! Project! with two other extremely talented photographers. (I'll reveal the details soon.) I've been blogging about photography for the Baltimore Sun's Charm City Current collective since May. One of my prints was accepted into a juried art exhibition at the Los Angeles Center of Digital Art. I've joined art membership programs here in D.C. I've applied for more photography shows in D.C. and New York.

And that feeling is back. That feeling of standing at the edge of a cliff.

That feeling of infinite possibilities (peace to Amel Larriuex) is there again, humming in the back of my mind.

My life isn't perfect right now, by any means. I have my ups and downs and in-betweens. But I also feel like I'm closer to living my life according to my own terms. I really am closer to embracing change, embracing chaos, and, hopefully, incorporating these shifts, and that feeling humming in the back of my mind into my work.

Rolling through Southeast. + En Route to Silverdocs.

2010-08-18T01:34:00.000-04:00

Playing with video again, which I haven't done in earnest since 2008. I'm still teaching myself and working out the proverbial kinks.

Allen Ginsberg and the march of time.

2010-08-10T12:27:00.001-04:00

William S. Burroughs, 1953, © Allen Ginsberg

I didn’t quite expect to confront my own mortality on a lazy Sunday afternoon but that’s exactly what happened after viewing Beat Generation: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg at the National Gallery of Art this weekend.

Beat Generation spans four decades in Ginsberg’s life, tracing his rise to literary fame (and notoriety) and capturing his friends and lovers in quiet, quickly snatched black-and-white moments—William S. Borroughs sitting in a chair, his face mostly obscured by shadows, save for a shaft of light streaking behind him; Jack Kerouac smoking on the rooftop of Ginsberg’s apartment building, with a book tucked into his jacket pocket; Gregory Corso sitting in front of a window, flanked by plants. These portraits of literary giants, before they became literary giants, are poignant because we’re looking at these men the way Ginsberg saw them, rather than as flat, historical figures whose works we read in high school and college.

But the most compelling part of the exhibit was the last room, where we see the last two decades of Ginsberg’s life.

Continued...

A perfect Sunday.

2010-08-08T21:01:00.001-04:00

+ A long conversation with my Dad,

+ Finally checking out my neighborhood farmers market where I procured eggplants; red peppers; arugula; lovely, lemony basil; grape tomatoes, a baguette (and a kiss from the baker, what?), shiro plums, yellow peaches, and vegan cookies all for $20,

+Wandering around the Bloomingdale/Eckington neighborhoods with Curtis Mayfield in my headphones,

+ Visiting the National Gallery of Art for the Beat Generation exhibit, which consisted of four decades of photographs taken by Allen Ginsberg as well as Mark Rothko: In the Tower. Both exhibits were quite awe-inspiring for very different reasons.*

+Coming home and fixing a delicious meal with goodies from earlier today (Pan-fried eggplant & arugula open-faced sandwich with a tomato-basil-mozzarella salad),

+Re-reading one of my favorite books, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri.

Life has been a comedy of errors as of late. So many things seemed to be going wrong in both my professional and personal spheres and I was beginning to feel a bit fractured and jumbled, like a Picasso painting.

A day like today was so necessary.

*I'll be writing about both exhibits soon. Everything I saw sort of seeped underneath my skin and I can't stop thinking about Ginsberg's photos and Rothko's black-on-black paintings.

Up in the Air.

2010-07-07T23:59:00.000-04:00

In the past month, I turned 25, left the day job I've had for two years, moved to a new apartment and began training for a new position in an organization that I'm very excited to be a part of.

Life has consisted of sorting, packing, donating and throwing away my belongings, shuttling back and forth between my old and new apartments, paying bills, calling utility companies, unpacking, cleaning, exploring my new neighborhood, valiantly attempting to keep up my other blogging duties without an Internet connection in the new apartment, navigating the ups, downs, and unknowns of my new gig, building new relationships, being assertive ending unhealthy ones, reviving old ones, planning new artistic endeavors and partnerships, and becoming more comfortable with---nay, embracing---the unknown.

I haven't really had a lot of time to sit down and fully process all of the changes I've been through in the past month or so. Nor have I had a lot of time to shoot. But I feel like I'm slowly starting to find a rhythm. I'm already figuring out which buses get me to my destination the quickest; where to get a good cup of coffee (and free wi-fi), which laundromat to wheel my clothes to, and which bodegas sell Dogfish Head beer (!). I'm also planning places I want to shoot in the very near future, since this neighborhood is changing rapidly. (As a matter of fact, I can't get this kind of shot again, which I took last year, because they tore down the steps I stood on to get that perspective.)

So, even though things are hectic right now, I feel okay with that. Despite the chaos, I feel more focused than ever. And I feel...free. Like I can do whatever I want. I suppose that has always been true but I didn't fully realize it until now. Oh well. Better I discover that at 25 as opposed to 45 or 75 or never, right?

25.

2010-06-05T11:17:00.002-04:00

"I woke up early on my born day, I'm [25] years of blessing/the essence of adolescence leaves my body now I'm fresh in/my physical frame is celebrated cuz I made it/one-quarter through life/some godly-like fame created..." *

Normally, I would gnash my teeth about where I am right now. I would use this space to worry about not being accomplished enough, talented enough, smart enough, well-traveled enough, etc. etc. now that I've lived for a quarter of a century.

But I'm not going to do that, especially in light of a great conversation I had with a dear, dear friend of mine on Tuesday. As we sat outside somewhere near U Street, watching the sun make its westward journey before setting, she told me not to compare myself to others. "They're thriving in their season and you're thriving in yours. And anything else you haven't done that you want to do...you can do it. You're capable."

I am.

In the past few months, many good things have come my way, in terms of new friends, new relationships, a new place, creating and showing work, and new opportunities related to what I love to do. (Photography and writing, in case you weren't sure.)

And there are a lot more good things in store for me. I know it. I can feel it. And I welcome it.

Tonight! LACDA 2010 "TOP 40" International Juried Exhibit

2010-05-13T15:46:00.000-04:00

"Untitled, 2010", © Danielle Scruggs

Are you in the Los Angeles area? Do you like art? Are you looking for something to do tonight? If you answered yes to any of those questions, I think you would have a great time at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art tonight at 7 pm for its 2010 Top 40 International Juried Exhibit reception. One of my prints will be on display along with 39 other extremely talented digital artists from around the world.

Unfortunately, I won't be at the show. But it would please me to no end to see a photo of my print in action. Send an email to photo (at) daniellescruggs.com if you're so inclined. Have a great evening.

Innervisions.

2010-05-05T20:08:00.001-04:00

A bit of good news to share: I'll be blogging at Innervisions about all things photography for Charm City Current, a blog collective of artists, musicians, local leaders, writers, and everyday citizens who live in the Baltimore-D.C. Metro area. I just started this week and I hope you'll swing by to check it out.

Top 40 Pick!

2010-04-29T14:59:00.000-04:00

One of my photos was chosen for the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art 2010 International "Top 40" Juried Exhibition. An artist reception will be held at LACDA on May 13 as part of the city's Downtown Art Walk and the show will be on view until June 5 (which, incidentally, is my birthday). I'm thrilled to be a part of this exhibit!

An answer. (From Toni Morrison no less.)

2010-04-17T12:09:00.014-04:00

An answer regarding musings from nearly two weeks ago. Replace "writer" with "photographer" and what Ms. Morrison has to say in this short clip applies quite nicely. I do wonder, however, if I have been limited in my thinking. When I say I've struggled with how I want to define myself, was I unconsciously thinking, "Being black isn't enough"? "Being a woman isn't enough"? Because there is a deep well of experiences and history to draw from in being who I am. Why view that as some kind of limitation?

Nice. An answer that leads to several more questions, none of which I can answer right now. But maybe that's all right.

A black woman photographer or a photographer who is a black woman?*

2010-04-05T12:51:00.001-04:00

So. While I was taking a break from some other projects (photography and non-photography related), I came across this essay from photographer Lou Noble, who's based in Los Angeles and takes beautiful portraits. (Seriously. Beautiful, no?) The whole idea of being a black photographer (as opposed to a photographer) is something I struggle with a lot, and have written about here and elsewhere. Here's an excerpt of what Noble has to say:

I’m a black photographer. THAT IS SO WEIRD. I’m a black writer. CRAZY.

Owning those labels, wearing those hats, if for only a second, makes me wonder about responsibility.

Do I have a responsibility to speak about a particular experience? Should I, somewhere in my writing, speak up for black folk?

Should my photography talk about the Black Experience? Should I only take photos of women like Janette?

And as soon as I start asking those questions, I realize how limited the idea of a single Black Experience is.

A person looks at me, thinks black.

But my dad’s from Panama. My mom’s from Minneapolis. I was raised and educated in Beverly Hills.

My skin lies to you.

And I’m rather glad of that. I look at the hands typing this, and they bear no relation to a shared experience, to a racial identity.

As it should be. My skin has not determined my fate. Raised in the blender of cultures like I was, my skin means my chances of getting skin cancer are low.
Because that is what it is for.

Both of my parents are black. Both are from Illinois. My grandparents and great-grandparents are from the south (Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, that sort of deal.) I'm black. Always have been, always will be. I'm a woman. Again, always have been, always will be.

But I can relate to what Noble is talking about here. I know I keep bringing up this quote by Julius Lester, but I feel like I finally found someone who was able to put into words something I've always felt but was unable to articulate: “…Concepts have a way of superimposing themselves on persons and the person is obliterated.”

The person is obliterated. I know that when people look at me, they make an awful lot of assumptions about me because I'm black and because I'm a woman. And while I do not feel that there is a Black Experience that I need to speak about (because there is no one "Black Experience". We're diverse. We contain multitudes. Attending an HBCU showed me that), I do feel I need to give voice to my experience, because too often, people who look like me aren't given that opportunity, feel me? And since I have a voice, and a proclivity for photography, I might as well use them both to explore what it means to navigate the world as a black woman. Because that's what I am.

But I also think it's important not to assume that just by looking at me, with my brown skin and kinky hair, that you know everything there is to know about me and about black women as a whole.

I listen to jazz and watch too much [adult swim]. I'm a tomboy and live in jeans and Chucks but I also like to experiment with makeup. I love reading poetry but spoken word nights kind of make me want to punch someone in the face. I enjoy going to galleries and museums as much as (probably more than) clubs and parties. I'm practically a vegetarian until the days I crave a good burger. I love Karen O and Mos Def and Betty Davis and Charles Mingus with equal fervor. I watch movies with subtitles at AFI Silver and on Netflix and I also enjoy watching blaxploitation movies with my dad when I go home to visit. (And so on and so forth. Plenty of black people are bundles of contradictions like these. People in general are bundles of contradictions.)

I'm not sure if this entirely makes sense. I'm also fairly certain I'll look back on this and laugh at my silly 20-something ramblings on What It Means to be a Black Woman. Yes, being those two things defines me, but so do a great deal of other things. And the same goes for all people.

*Yes, the syntax matters. My apologies for the long title.

Feature on Kiss My Black Ads

2010-03-31T22:08:00.000-04:00

A sampling of my work was recently featured on the multicultural design and advertising website Kiss My Black Ads. I am thrilled to be included. See the work here. And check out more work from KBMA proprietor Craig Brimm here.

New work.

2010-03-29T23:48:00.000-04:00

I updated the portfolio site with the (hopefully) best self-portraits I've taken so far. I'm still drafting an artist statement but for now, I shared two quotes that speak to what this project means to me thus far.

"She was more than eyes, ears, lips and thigh. She was a heart. She was a mind." Dolen Perkins-Valdez ¹

"I am glad we didn’t know about racism then, because concepts have a way of superimposing themselves on persons and the person is obliterated." Julius Lester²

1. Source

2. Source

"Fearless y Vulnerable."

2010-03-28T03:25:00.001-04:00

I know two people who talk about the importance of vulnerability a great deal. They're both beautiful, inspiring multi-hyphenates---writers/bloggers/scholars/designers/artistic muses (I dare say---they're muses for me anyway). One I've known since college*, the other I met a couple of months ago through Twitter of all places. I'm glad they're both in my life because they constantly remind me, either directly or indirectly, of just how much strength it takes to be vulnerable; to pursue intimate, honest connection.

I've always wanted to be that way. Fearless and vulnerable and unapologetically me. It's hard though. It's hard to realize that we can't always control outcomes. That sometimes it's just not our time. That sometimes the expectations you had for yourself don't always mesh with your current reality.

It's hard when life hands you and your family ugly reminders that life is so unpredictable, that so much is out of our hands. It's hard not to build walls around yourself when those things happen. It's hard not to retreat.

But just because it's hard doesn't mean it's impossible. And I've noticed that when I've allowed myself to be my most vulnerable---those moments when I was scared to death to share a photo with someone or a piece of writing---that's when I've been able to really connect with people. Those are the moments I've realized that somehow, through some miracle, my words or my images were able to reach someone, to speak to that person and illustrate some shared or familiar experience.

I'm working on becoming fearless and vulnerable to the core. As off-kilter as the past year or so has been, in particular the past three months (for a whole host of reasons I won't list here, lest I bore and/or exhaust you, dear reader), there are too many good things in this life to shrink away from because of fear.

Ever onward.

*Actually, I had a crush on him that I never told him about and honestly, I'm glad I never did. We probably need to be in each other's lives the way we are now, not the way I wanted it when I first met him.

The photographs not taken. [First day of spring edition.]

2010-03-21T02:20:00.000-04:00

+ Golden mid-afternoon sunlight streaming through tall, floor-to-ceiling windows, shining through green water glasses, spilling onto a dark wood table.

+The network of veins within a man's cocoa-colored hands. They're strong and elegant, like a piano player's. One finger is adorned with a silver ring with an orange stone in the middle, one wrist is adorned with a thin bronze cuff.

+Another man's upturned wrist, a deep shade of brown, reveals a tattoo that declares "I Am" in bold, black letters. On his forearm, a tattoo of a simple, black crescent moon and star, the symbol of Islam.

+A banged-up, scratched Minolta SX-7 camera resting atop an artfully worn, leather messenger bag the color of cognac.

A story, a story

2010-03-17T22:55:00.002-04:00

all photos © Danielle Scruggs

"You have a backup of ideas, down in the esophagus."

For the second half of 2006, I was an intern at a photo studio in Chicago. The lead photographer had an eclectic group of friends who would drop by the studio from time to time---comic book artists, professional beatboxers, boutique owners, gallery owners, fellow photographers, just about anyone you can imagine.

On my last day (or next to last day, I'm getting old, I can't remember) one of his friends dropped by and she offered to give me a chakra reading. I remember she was in school to learn more about holistic healing, that kind of thing. I'm skeptical about things like that, I admit, but I figured it couldn't hurt to hear what she had to say.

So we grabbed two chairs and sat in the studio's kitchenette. She closed her eyes and started describing my various chakras, the symbolism and their meanings. I wrote down everything she said. And one of the many images she described was of flowers popping out of my mouth every time I tried to speak, which meant that my execution of ideas wasn't keeping pace with the amount of ideas forming within me.

Ever since that day, I've been intrigued by this image of flowers popping out of my mouth. It's been in my head for years and I'm so glad I finally have this in photographic form.

She also told me many, many other things about myself that, looking back, I can see just how accurate they were. But that's neither here nor there. It was just one of those slightly strange, slightly wonderful happenstances that make life...life, you know?

INI*

2010-03-10T00:18:00.001-05:00

all photos © Danielle Scruggs

It is what it is.

2010-02-27T01:49:00.000-05:00

photos © Danielle Scruggs

You know what's untenable? Not being honest with yourself. And not asking yourself enough questions. About a year ago, I wrote here that I don't ask myself "Why?" often enough. "Why photography?" "Why do I photograph what I photograph?"

Being able to intelligently and cogently articulate what you do and why is a crucial part of one's development as a creative person. I've always had a difficult time with this and I think now I know why.

I haven't been entirely honest with myself. In a way, this self-portrait experiment---which started almost on a lark and is deepening into something I hadn't really anticipated---has revealed that. It was easier to turn to street and documentary photography because I was afraid of exploring what it was I really wanted to explore: myself. Actually, I started this self-portrait experiment in a way with the Palimpsest series I completed in graduate school. It is a meditation on solitude but it was also an expression of how adrift I felt during that period in my life.

And part of the reason why I was so afraid to admit to myself and others that I wanted to create self-portraits was because I didn't want to seem trite or unoriginal. Like, "oh, here we go, another black female photographer being introspective and wants to take self-portraits."

"Be different!", I told myself. "Don't include race or sex or gender or sensuality or anything like that in your photos!" "Subvert expectations!"

But where does that really get you? Except annoyed and frustrated and wondering why your photos look like third-rate versions of someone else's vision and not your own? Who wants to spend their life trying to re-create someone else's version of "success"? Not I. Not anymore.

The thing is, creating anything---be it a poem, a short story, a novel, a music suite, a photograph, a painting, a drawing, a sculpture, etc.---puts you in an extremely vulnerable position. You feel completely exposed. I liken it to how I feel when someone sees me without my glasses. They see you in a way you didn't fully intend them to see you.

But the thing is, these experiments have shown me what it is I want to keep exploring photographically, and it is actually a theme I've written about several times before---the need to see black people, black women in particular, just be.

I don't want to be anyone's saint or sinner. I don't want to be a Queen or a Jezebel. I don't want to be The Strong Black Woman ® archetype nor do I want to be the victim that needs constant saving. I don't want to be put into a binary role ("we either n***as or kings/we either b*tches or queens"). I want to just be. And I feel by continuing to create these self-portraits, I can show that things like solitude, melancholy, beauty, sensuality, sexuality, joy, tension, anger, tenderness, sadness and everything in between all exist within black women. We contain multitudes like everyone else and deserve to be treated as such. Not simply as problems that need to be solved.

Now, do I feel my photographs have reached that level as of now? Of course not. But the process of trying to get there is just as important as actually getting there. That process includes continuing to shoot, of course. But it also includes being a lot more disciplined, a lot more focused. It means studying more art history. It means studying more about photography history specifically. It means finding journal articles about portraiture throughout the history of photography and other art forms. It means looking at more monographs. It means reading more about politics, feminism, American history, African history, European history. It means going to all the (completely totally free!) art museums around here more often than I do now.

It means being committed. It means holding myself accountable. It means really digging deep and asking myself what it is I'm trying to accomplish. It means (to borrow from Zora Neale Hurston) jumping at the sun. It's daunting. And it also means that exploring these themes isn't something I'll be finished with in a year or ten or twenty. This means being on a 50-year plan and executing it slowly and steadily, as one of my friends wrote to me a couple of years ago.

I'm pretty sure I'm ready. I think I was always ready. I just needed to let myself know that.

Self-portraits, continued

2010-02-16T00:30:00.000-05:00

all photos © Danielle Scruggs

A Wintry Mix

2010-02-11T15:42:00.003-05:00

D.C. is still covered in a thick layer of snow. Bus service and above-ground train stations are shut down so that means I'm still in my apartment reading books, watching too much TV, catching up on the gabrillion posts in my Google Reader, and trying to figure out if Google Buzz is awesome or horrifying. Anyway, I was inspired to try something new and share some music I've been listening to lately. I hope you enjoy it. (By the by, I fixed a commenting bug on this website. So if you want to leave any feedback, ask a question, or just say hi, please feel free to do just that.)

A Wintry Mix
(download)

01 In Between-Bilal Salaam
02 Don't Close Your Eyes (Moonsatellite remix)- Robert Glasper + Bilal
03 Kalifornia- Mos Def
04 White Drapes-Mos Def
05 My World (Nas Salute)- Jay Electronica
06 One for the Monica Lingas Band- The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble
07 Cold Nights and Rainy Days-The Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble
08 Perverted Undertone-Prefuse 73
09 Sizuuuuuuuurpin-The Roots
10 Choir Fire- The Roots
11 High and Dry (Radiohead Cover)- Bilal
12 Love Czars II-Sa-Ra Creative Partners (Featuring Jay Electronica + Ta'Raach)
13 Life In Marvelous Times (Live from Newport Jazz Festival)-Mos Def
14 Little Brother- Blackstar
15 Mountain Sunlight (feat. Mos Def) - Jazz Liberatorz
16 Parasol- The Sea and Cake
17 Broken Dreams-Yesterday's New Quintet
18 Soft and Sleep-The Sea and Cake
19 Jonez In My Bonez-D'Angelo
20 No More-J*Davey
21 Human Nature (Cover, Live from Newport Jazz Festival)-Mos Def
22 Booty/GreatDayInTheMorning-D'Angelo
23 Get Together-J*Davey

Snowpocalypse Now

2010-02-08T23:09:00.002-05:00

Thanks to the few feet of snow that have been dumped on D.C. (with more on the way soon, apparently), I've spent the past four days watching several movies, cooking, baking, reading books, and spending too much time here and here. Oh, and taking photos as well.

Movies
+ Doubt (There were pockets of good acting in this showdown between Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a nun and priest, with Streep's character convinced that Hoffman's character is unsavory but my suspension of disbelief never quite kicked in. I just found it to be too over-the-top to be fully engaging. Viola Davis definitely earned that Oscar nomination however.)

+Miles Davis: Cool Jazz Sound (An amazing 1959 TV performance by Miles Davis and his quintet (John Coltrane, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb) as well as the Gil Evans orchestra performing songs from Kind of Blue and Miles Ahead. Tremendous.)

+Iris (I usually like Kate Winslet but I couldn't really engage with this movie about a writer who succumbs to Alzheimer's. It had a pretentious, paint-by-the-numbers biopic feel to me. Maybe I just need to watch it again.)

+An American Affair (Gretchen Mol stars as a mysterious artist involved in a clandestine affair with John F. Kennedy. She is also the object of obsession of her teenage neighbor, played by Cameron Bright [of Birth fame/infamy]. Some of the cinematography was gorgeous but for the most part I didn't like this movie all that much either. Most of the acting was very stilted. It looks like they shot the bulk of it in Baltimore as a stand-in for 1960s D.C. so I appreciated seeing some of my old stomping grounds on celluloid.)

+A Good Day to Be Black and Sexy (I didn't quite expect this movie--a collection of vignettes set during one day in Los Angeles--to have so much, um, sex in it. But the acting and cinematography were great and the director had an interesting point of view on what makes relationships work as well as what makes them fall apart.)

+Sex and the Single Girl (It was a real treat seeing Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood cut it up in this romantic comedy from 1964. Its views on gender roles are eye-roll inducing but hey, it was made in 1964. Another bonus: Count Basie and his Orchestra helmed the soundtrack.)

+Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America (Documentary on the history and rise of Soul Train, one of the Greatest Shows to Ever Air in the History of Television. It aired on VH1 over the weekend and made me ridiculously happy. Vintage clips of my favorite artists abounded---Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and the Pips. Since it's VH1, it will more than likely run ad infinitum, so if you missed the initial run, you'll be able to catch it again.)

Books:

I'm still working my way through Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin. I know it's a bit of a cliché to be Black, nerdy, intelligent and be a little in love with Baldwin but he is one of my favorite writers. He was adept at making quietly devastating observations on life--what motivates us to love, and to hate. I also recently finished The Way Home by George Pelecanos. It was my first time reading one of his novels and now I need to find more, especially since he wrote for The Wire, another one of the Greatest Shows in the History of Television.

Self-portraiture experiments.

2010-02-06T02:44:00.001-05:00

all photos © Danielle Scruggs

I was looking through old notebooks and sketchbooks of mine earlier this evening and I ran across some things I wrote down that might explain why I've been working with self-portraits as of late:

"Our whole guise is like giving a sign to the world to think of us in a certain way but there's a point between what you want people to know about you and what you can't help people knowing about you. And that has to do with what I've always called the gap between intention and effect."- Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph (From a June 2008 notebook)

"I think the reason I don't turn the camera on myself all that much is because I'm afraid of letting people see who I am and [that] they'll notice something...unsavory about me. But you can't call yourself an artist if you're censoring yourself out of fear."- Yours truly (From October 2007 notebook, inspired by a Mickalene Thomas artist talk)

I remember Thomas also said "Go back to yourself" at that lecture, when you're struggling with another project. Explore who you are and what you're all about. I have to say, these experiments have been pretty interesting to say the least. I like some of the results I'm getting.

The New.

2010-02-01T23:59:00.003-05:00

For your perusal, I have updated my portfolio site with event, concert, and editorial photos I have shot over the years for The Couch Sessions, Liberator Magazine, The Washington Post and others.

Take a look and leave feedback if you're so inclined.

Have a great evening.

Nature and self.

2010-01-31T01:43:00.002-05:00

all photos © Danielle Scruggs

I've been thinking about nature a great deal lately. Specifically the natural world and how it co-exists (or clashes) with the built environment. I'm not quite sure why I've been attracted to flora and fauna lately, but I figure it's probably best to keep shooting, keep pushing, keep questioning and see where it takes me.

I also have been creating self-portraits and working with multiple images again. Diptychs and triptychs, namely. Again, I'm not sure why, exactly, but I'm going to keep pushing both of these ideas. Maybe see where they converge, if at all. I also want to explore how these images relate to what I usually am concerned with when I shoot (street scenes, light studies, isolation, solitude).

Haiti, Ayiti, Hayti

2010-01-20T02:17:00.004-05:00

So.

I posted something long and rambling about the media coverage of Haiti in the wake of last Tuesday's earthquake. About the lack of context being provided in newspaper and television news reports. The graphic nature of the photos being sent over the wire for the world to see. My own emotions and thoughts about the country, about other disasters, about what it means to be of service.

I took it down because my thoughts are all over the place, and I still can't fully articulate what it is I'm feeling. One day I'll expound on these things in a much more logical, coherent way. But right now, I'll just list a few ways to make a contribution.

+Haiti Relief Benefit Print Sale: A group of emerging photographers are selling prints for $50 each with all proceeds being donated to ~~Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation~~ Doctors Without Borders. The artists include Alex Heilner, Rachel Hulin, Molly Landreth, and all of the work is, thankfully, selling out fairly quickly.

+Partners in Health, a nonprofit organization that has been providing health care to Haiti for more than 20 years, has created StandWithHaiti.org, where you can donate as little as $10 so they can continue to provide support on the ground.

+Doctors Without Borders is another renown organization on the ground in Haiti that needs money to provide support.

+A larger list of organizations providing help can be found here: http://weblog.liberatormagazine.com/2010/01/haiti-ways-to-help.html

I saw this quote on another website and thought it was more than relevant given current events:

"Every little thing counts in a crisis." ~ Jawaharlal Nehru

"Every little thing counts in a crisis." Just do what you can. I say this for myself as much as I say it for you. (You being all 2.8 of the readers of this tiny part of the www.)

Radical honesty

2010-01-10T20:34:00.004-05:00

My uncle, circa 1970-71

But I still have this feeling. I'm not in love with my life right now. And I know I've been through a hell of a lot. But it doesn't stop me from being restless. I've always been that way. If I don't like something, I fix it. I make a plan and I solve the problem as best I can. But see, I'm not unhappy; I'm just fine. But I don't want to live a life that's just fine. I want to live a life that I feel enthusiastic about.

This is a quote from Tasha's Truth, a well-written, wholly (and sometimes painfully) honest blog written by one of the coolest, smartest, most self-possessed people I've had the pleasure of meeting. And it spoke to me. It's been nagging at me. Every word has been burrowing into my conscience and won't let go. And I know why. Because I'm in that place too.

I've mentioned before that 2009 was a trying year, in the most oblique terms. I've tried to tackle all of these things directly but words (and at times, images too) failed me. But I'll try now. In March (St. Patrick's Day, to be exact) my uncle died. It was sudden and tragic. Death is hard to deal with anyway, even when it's from natural causes. But when someone is killed; when their life is snatched away, that is another kind of monster. My mom (and my dad too, for that matter) lost a brother. My cousins lost their father. Two of them have children who lost their grandfather. My great-aunts lost a nephew. His friends lost a dear friend. And yet to others, my uncle is just a statistic. One more notch in Chicago's absurd homicide rate. Barely worth a mention in the newspapers.

Going home for the holidays this year was bittersweet. Very bittersweet. Knowing that my uncle wasn't going to come through the door of my great-aunt's house, where my family usually gathers every Christmas, hurt deeply. Very deeply. And the fact that the rest of my extended family, save for two of my cousins, didn't show up this year made the pain more acute. I miss him. I miss him so damn much.

So. I haven't been dealing with that too well. I tend to ignore problems, hoping that they'll just go away on their own. Unfortunately, treating problems as if they don't exist does not help matters. Not at all. I'm still learning. (And I think my youngest cousin is learning this too. He and I have remarkably similar personalities.)

One of my mentors from my Howard days, Harlee Little, died last year too. He had a stroke around Christmas 2008 and passed away last January. That hurt me deeply too. He was an excellent photographer, a great instructor, and one of the first people (besides my dad) to encourage my interest in photography. I didn't see him regularly but I miss him too.

I also lost some friends last year too, one in particular who felt a need to tell me that "I was sad all the time" and needed to "get over it" one week after my uncle's funeral. Another one I've been drifting away from for some time and I think we're just in such different places right now that we barely have anything to talk about anymore. Maybe we'll reconnect one day. I don't know.

So what does this have to do with the quote above? The thing is, given everything that has happened in the past year, I'm not in love with my life right now. Don't get me wrong. I'm grateful I have a job and my relative health, a warm place to stay, because that's more than what a great deal many people have right now. But just surviving isn't the way life is meant to be lived, correct? And if I'm being completely honest with myself, I'm not happy with where I am in my life right now, literally and figuratively.

D.C. isn't a bad place at all. But living here, and doing what I do every day, makes me feel like I'm wearing a stylish sweater that fits a size too small. Everything looks fine to the naked eye but I know something is off. It's right for someone else but not me. And it's up to me to change that.

I feel uncertain about many things right now, but I know two things:

1) I love photography and exploring my surroundings with my camera.
2) I need to move.

I have a few cities in mind. Well, two, in particular. They're on opposite coasts and I need to make a decision on where I want to end up and soon. And in the short term, I need to keep shooting, keep printing, and keep doing what it is I love doing.

All I know is, I don't want to keep feeling the way I've been feeling. And I do not intend to. I want to be in love with my life. And I'm going to put in the work to make that happen.

On literary metaphors and photography

2010-01-08T09:37:00.009-05:00

I added some more photos to the project formerly known as Just Look Around. Honestly, I'm not sure if I should keep going with this project; if I've reached the end of it and need to move on to something else. I started this in 2008, when I finished grad school and moved back to the DC area. I felt a bit lost and very ambivalent about my surroundings. It's a documentary of a place but these are also documents of my conflicting feelings about what I'm looking at.

The problem is, what I'm working on now doesn't feel particularly cohesive. Palimpsest, Round the Decay, and the Light series are novellas in my mind. There's a certain through line to all of them. They represent complete stories to me. Just Look Around feels more like a collection of short stories, if not vignettes.

It might be time to move on. Either that or I need to reevaluate how and why I'm shooting what I'm shooting. Or, maybe I should just see where this takes me and stop worrying so much.

Last Day of 2009, First Day of 2010

2010-01-03T15:58:00.005-05:00

photos © Danielle Scruggs

In Which She Waxes Poetic On A New Year, Fresh Starts, Etc.

2009-12-23T01:12:00.005-05:00

So.

It's been quite a while since I've been around here. No real reason for that. I just haven't had much to say as of late.

I can say though, that I'm more than ready for 2009 to be over. It's been a strange, trying year and I'm looking forward to 2010 and the start of a new decade immensely.

Next year I'm anticipating more international and domestic travel, better meals, new restaurants, new friends, nurturing the friendships I already have, having fun with my new camera, more handwritten letters and cards, taking more risks, and pursuing my personal and professional goals with verve and vigor.

See you on the other side.

Roy DeCarava, 1919-2009

2009-10-29T07:00:00.000-04:00

"No, its not about pretty pictures, because it’s not about pretty. It’s about truth. And truth is a many splendored thing — a multi-faceted thing. It doesn’t have to be pretty to be true, but if its true it’s beautiful. Truth is beautiful. And so my whole work is about what amounts to a reverence for life itself."

RIP, Roy DeCarava. I can't even put into words how much of an inspiration this man and his work has been for me.

Of Interest: (DeCarava edition)
1996 Tribes interview with Dread Scott
NY Times obituary
Beautiful photos from the Lens blog
Liberator Magazine feature
Sweet Flypaper of Life, his collaboration with Langston Hughes

Nikita Gale

2009-10-20T20:16:00.005-04:00

all photos © Nikita Gale

On my never-ending quest for inspiration, I came across the website of one Ms. Nikita Gale, a photographer based in Atlanta who produces absolutely beautiful, slightly off-kilter photos. I'm shooting film exclusively right now since my digital camera passed last week. Seeing Gale's images make me excited about going analog again. She also co-edits the Catalog of Visual Interestingness, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like.

Morning.

2009-10-15T01:08:00.005-04:00

For reasons I won't get into*, Wednesday was ~~all kinds of awful~~ could have been a lot better. But I won't dwell on that. I'll focus on the fact that I have another day and another chance to start over and make things right. I know all too well that many people don't even get that.

Of interest: (inspiration-to-get-me-through-until-the-weekend edition)
Morning, by Amel Larrieux
Belhaven Meridian, by Shabazz Palaces
Sardines, by Michael Goldberg

(*Well, okay, here's one: my camera officially shuffled off this mortal coil. I'm trying not to panic.)

Thoughts on exhibiting

2009-10-05T11:57:00.008-04:00

So. I took part in Recession Art's No Money No Problems show, which opened this past Saturday. Honestly, the whole thing feels a bit like a dream---the beautiful warehouse in Brooklyn, performance artist Lydia Bell dancing in front of my prints, two other floors packed with paintings, prints, sculpture, sweet French artists who offer you wine and a look at their beautiful photographs, brunch with parents, meeting up with some of my Brooklyn pals, the blur of cities that rush by on trains and buses while traveling between D.C. and New York.

The show was a mix of photography, paintings, sculpture, found objects, video and a giant tank of carrot juice (yes, really!). And I loved seeing the way our work fit together. It was an amazing time.

There's plenty of room for improvement, of course. I think I could have done a better job with the presentation of my work but it was also gratifying to see how people responded to my photos. I also realized how important it is to share the meaning behind your work. Once you do that, you give people a deeper understanding of what you were trying to accomplish, even if those original motivations feel a bit personal to share. It's also important to hear how other people interpret your work (whether they like it or not) because it gives you new ways of seeing yourself and new ideas of where to go next. It also made me realize I need more of that creative energy that comes from sharing ideas, and hearing perspectives different from my own.

I want to do more of this. I feel motivated again. I feel ready to tackle ideas that have been floating in my mind for a while. I feel ready to share my work more often.

It's a good feeling. Now I just have to adjust back to the D.C. pace. New York can be such an overwhelming, exhausting place. And I mean that in the best way possible.

P.S. No Money No Problems is still running at the Invisible Dog Gallery through Oct. 10. If you live in the New York area, you still have five days to check it out! Go here for more information.

P.P.S. I desperately wanted to take photos of the opening; unfortunately my camera decided to conk out on Saturday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's nothing too serious. In the meantime, I'm waiting on photos from my parents.

Jet + Google Books

2009-09-17T00:15:00.000-04:00

Google Books now has every issue of Jet magazine uploaded for your perusal and pleasure. Here it is, a document of how Black people have seen ourselves---our music, our fashion, our trials, our triumphs---for the past half century. It will be fascinating, I'm sure, to make comparisons between what has changed and what has (for better or worse) remained the same.

I am eternally grateful to the Liberator Magazine family for pointing this out first.

Of Interest:
More on Jet magazine
More on John H. Johnson
Mad Men shout-out

Paul Octavious

2009-09-14T21:47:00.004-04:00

I'm in love with Paul Octavious' Same Hill, Different Day series. Check out more of his work on his Flickr stream.

Jenny Baptiste

2009-09-10T23:13:00.006-04:00

The love and enthusiasm she has for the people and places of Brooklyn emanates from every photo Jenny Baptiste shares on her blog. I first found out about Baptiste via Dodge and Burn a few months ago and have been a fan ever since.

Liz Kuball

2009-09-07T19:58:00.000-04:00

Liz Kuball is a photographer, blogger and now a 20x200 featured artist. Her writing and her photos remind me quite a bit of Joan Didion's essays and novels---straight forward, completely stripped of pretension, and still complex.

The above photo is my favorite from her California Vernacular series. Check it out and some of her other projects, and then go buy one of her prints. I'm fairly sure you won't regret it.

Edward M. Kennedy, 1932-2009

2009-08-29T10:00:00.003-04:00

See more Magnum Agency photos of the Senate's "lion" here. Hopefully, he's resting in peace (and power) somewhere.

Happy Birthday, Michael

2009-08-29T09:30:00.001-04:00

Video still from 1973 Soul Train performance

UPDATE: View "With A Child's Heart" here.

Recession Art

2009-07-31T21:00:00.006-04:00

I have good news to share---some of my photos will appear in Recession Art's No Money No Problems exhibit, to be held in New York in October. On August 2, (That's this Sunday, Sunday!, Sunday!!) they're celebrating the artists selected for the show with a fete/benefit at The Redhead in New York.

I won't be there because I'll be in Chicago for this weekend. However, if you're reading this and you live in New York (or are a bus/train trip away), feel free to go and spread the word among your friends!

Here is the full list of artists:

Matthew Conradt
Kristen Doetzkies
Caroline England
Catherine Gavriel
Allison Guy
Lisbeth Kaufman
Joyce Lai
Danielle McDonnough
Jason Mones
Liana Moskowitz
David Muenzer
Lori Nelson
Danielle Scruggs
Kathleen Thum
Ian Trask

Of interest: (Another-one-of-those-no-particular-theme-editions)
93 Autumns: Photography of Tracy Clayton, a D.C. photographer. He has a really interesting eye, and I love that the name of his website pays homage to Gordon Parks.

Jati Lindsay: Another D.C. photographer. His work is really soulful.

Diana F+ Camera: I've had my eye on this for a minute. I've had a strong urge lately to go back to shooting on film, my first love. We'll see where that goes.

Silent Meditation Animated Loop: A silent cartoon you can watch as is or with your own music. So far I've paired it with "Herbal Scent" and "Cold Nights + Rainy Days" by Yesterdays New Quintet, "Me" by Erykah Badu, and "Great Day" by Madvillain. Good stuff.

Walking down U St

2009-07-26T18:34:00.004-04:00

On Sun Moon Child + Soul

2009-07-21T20:47:00.008-04:00

This video, created by Baltimore-based multimedia artist Pierre Bennu, is absolutely beautiful and inspiring. I can't get it out of my head. I stumbled upon this gem a few days ago and every time I watch it, it brings tears to my eyes, no joke. It's an unabashed celebration of Black people---our dance, our songs, our lives, our artistry, our humanity.

Since the Gloved One's untimely passing, I've had this strong desire to dig through the (digital) crates and listen to the music I grew up with. The Jackson 5, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The O'Jays, The Spinners, James Brown, Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield, Gil Scott-Heron...soul music. The music that played on my dad's turntable on Saturday afternoons after I finished watching cartoons and Soul Train. The music that blared from our car stereo when my dad and I would go for long drives through Chicago and end up at some barbecue spot on Chicago's south side. The music that played when my mom and I would visit my grandmother. The music that played at barbershops where I would sit with my grandfather and listen to him talk with his friends.

It's the soundtrack of my childhood and while I have always enjoyed it, now that I'm older, I have a much deeper understanding of and appreciation for what those men and women were talking about, what made them pour so much joy, pain, rage, sadness, lust, anxiety, hopefulness and everything in between into songs that resonate 30, 40 years later.

Listening to these albums, really listening to them, and seeing the creative energy behind Pierre Bennu's work has my mind positively reeling with ideas. Time to get to work.

Of Interest: (Soul-related-edition)
Souled On: A great music blog full of rare gems by soul artists both well-known and obscure.

Exit The Apple: Pierre Bennu's website, full of his musings, links to more of his videos and home of his incredible notradio music mixes. (Might have to make a trip to Baltimore to visit the Exit The Apple store soon.)

Michael: Hilton Als' take on MJ from the NY Review of Books. Excellent essay.

Imani Uzuri: The singer behind "Sun Moon Child."

"Relax and let everything go to hell."

2009-07-15T23:39:00.000-04:00

An excerpt of a letter from Sol Lewitt to Eva Hesse, via a Hey Hot Shot! interview with Parsley Steinweiss:

You seem the same as always, and being you hate every minute of it. Don't! Learn to say "F**k You" to the world once in a while. You have every right to. Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder, wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, gasping, confusing, itching, scratching, mumbling, bumbling, grumbling, humbling, stumbling, rumbling, rambling, gambling, tumbling, scumbling, scrambling, hitching, hatching, bitching, moaning, groaning, honing, boning, horse-shitting, hair-splitting, nit-picking, piss-tricking, nose-sticking, ass-gouging, eyeball-poking, finger-pointing, alleyway-sneaking, long waiting, small stepping, evil-eyeing, back-scratching, searching, perching, besmirching, grinding grinding grinding away at yourself. Stop it and just DO... Don't worry about cool, make your own uncool. Make your own, your own world... You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. Then you will be able to DO! I have much confidence in YOU and even though you are tormenting yourself, the work you do is very good. Try to do some BAD work. The worst you think of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell.
April 14, 1965

These are definitely words to live by, to say the least.

Lightworks.

2009-07-14T00:55:00.006-04:00

D.C. Loves Dilla

2009-07-10T17:00:00.007-04:00

I went to the D.C. Loves Dilla concert/fundraiser at Liv Wednesday night, an annual event held to honor the memory of James "J Dilla" Yancey and raise awareness of lupus, the disease that claimed his life in 2006 when he was just 32 years old.

The venue was packed with musicians, rappers, singers, and fans paying sweaty, high-energy tribute to J Dilla's music and life. The highlights of the evening was Phife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest going through a medley of ATCQ songs produced by J Dilla, Ardamus going hard on "F*** The Police", and when Maureen Yancey, J Dilla's mother, took to the stage and thanked everyone for their love and support.

It was an unabashed celebration of life and it definitely lifted my spirits.

You can see more photos at The Couch Sessions on Monday. Have a good weekend.

Icarus, etc.

2009-07-08T00:13:00.005-04:00

Players.

2009-07-06T20:58:00.008-04:00

Lately.

2009-07-03T16:54:00.009-04:00

Locations: Logan Circle, Navy Yard, Brentwood, all in Washington, D.C.

Rest in Power

2009-06-29T23:23:00.005-04:00

Michael Jackson, 1958-2009

Too many people have shared their thoughts on him more eloquently than I ever could. All I can say is, I certainly didn't expect this loss to feel so personal.

Of interest:
Photographing Michael
"R.I.P" from Jack Davey
Remembering the Times from Michael A. Gonzales
Why? The King of Pop is Dead

JPG comes roaring back

2009-05-12T20:10:00.007-04:00

This arrived in my inbox tonight. Welcome back, JPG.

Why.

2009-05-04T23:24:00.005-04:00

It's something that I don't think I ask myself often enough. Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to "make it" that I don't slow down and ask myself why I do what I do.

So, why take photos? A few months ago, I wrote: "...I hope to make myself more vulnerable with my photography. To give people insight into how I see myself, how I see my world, and hopefully inspire other people to become a little more vulnerable and to let their guard down a little."

That still holds true now, but I'd like to make an addendum: I also realize that I take photos to explore. To explore the world around me, the people in it, the strange, sad, tragic, thrilling happenstances. To explore myself, why I think the way I do, why certain things catch my eye.

I take photos to answer questions, to ask questions, to think out loud, to respond to a piece of music, to lyrics that make me hit "rewind" so I can make sure I really got it, to a moment in a film, to a painting in a museum, to a passage in a novel that I dog-ear and read again and again, to a roadside memorial, to the graffiti that plasters the abandoned warehouses I see on my way to work.

That's what this is all really about. I don't take photos solely to get into exhibitions and certain publications and the like. (Although, it would be nice to share my work on a broader scale because I really do believe that art has the power to elevate and move people. Or even make them just be still, as an ambitious painter told me last year during one of those epic, all-night conversations that's de rigeur when you're in college.)

I surely don't take photos to become rich (ha!) or famous (double ha!). I take photos to try to make sense of why this world is the way that it is, and to try to make sense of my reactions to it.

Everything else comes in due time.

Art happenings

2009-04-28T20:55:00.008-04:00

There are so many art events going on this Friday that my head is spinning a little just thinking about them. But I'm going to try to go to as many of them as I possibly can.

+ First Fridays: DuPont Circle galleries will be open from 6pm-8pm; most are near 21st + R Streets.
+Art Whino: The opening reception for "MayDay: Global Politics" will be held 6pm-midnight. I've heard and seen great things about and from Art Whino, however, I've never made the trek to the National Harbor to see a show in person. Time to change that.
+Civilian Art Projects: Two artists' work will be on display---the M St Project from photographer Ken D. Ashton and All Night Flight, 60 illustrations from Erick Jackson from 7pm-10pm.
+Picture Equality: Graffiti, Turntables, and Documentary Photography is an exhibit of work from "youth creating art to make social change", presented by the Pink Line Project. It'll be over in Anacostia from 9pm-midnight.

And on Saturday, the Saartjie Project presents Homecoming at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. Some background from TSP's website:

In May 2002, Saartjie (Sara) Baartman's remains were flown back to her homeland, South Africa and laid to rest almost 200 years after she left for Europe in search of a life void of violence. Tragically from 1810 – 1815 Saartjie was paraded around Europe under the show name “Hottentot Venus”. Featured as an oddity and hypersexual African woman, she was adorned in feathers, beads and placed in a cage on display because of her large buttocks. When she died her body was dissected and her remains were on display in a museum in Paris until 1974.
HOMECOMING is a tradition adopted by The Saartjie Project to commemorate the 7th anniversary of Saartjie Baartman’s final return home and raises the question, “What does it mean to commemorate this day?”HOMECOMING will feature women and girls boldly using their original art to heal and change communities.

I hope this is true

2009-04-19T11:10:00.005-04:00

"I've learned ... that the best times in life are when you're feeling raw. So even painful moments you can look at and ultimately find enjoyable, within limits."

-Christian Bale, GQ March 2007

Fear and vulnerability

2009-03-12T18:08:00.001-04:00

I’ve spent at least eight hours of each of the past four days reading other people’s poems. I am attending to word choice, comma placement, the arrangement of lines on the page. I am remembering, in this process, how vulnerable we poets make ourselves each time we take first the risk of writing poems and then the subsequent risk of sending these poems out into the world. This can be a terrifying prospect, writing and then sharing poetry.

From "For oh, I fear," by Camille Dungy

I came across this post over at harriet, the Poetry Foundation blog a few days ago. I've read it several times since then because while anyone undertaking a creative endeavor experiences some degree of anxiety over creating and sharing their work, poets and photographers are more closely related.

Both forms are about distillation and subtraction. It's about seeing the entire world before you, in all its chaos, beauty, ugliness, filth, despair and hope and attempting to make sense of it all in just a few lines scribbled in a notebook, in just one frame that represents 1/250 or 1/1000 of a second. It's a daunting task. I'm sure some variation of these questions runs through our heads:

"Am I revealing too much about myself?" "What will people think of me when they see this?" "Is what I'm doing Important Enough, with the Big Ideas That Will Change The World?" "What if I get rejected?" "What if I'm not good enough?" "Does anyone even care about what I have to say?"

Reading Dungy's post and the selection of poems she included (especially Claude McKay's "Poetry") made me realize that I want to get to the point where I'm not afraid to be vulnerable. Where I'm not afraid to try something new and strange and see where it leads me. Or at the very least, I want to get to the point where, when I am afraid, even terrified of revealing something inside me that I didn't know was there, I don't shrink away. I push through and see where to go from there.

I say all this to say, I've been working on a couple of projects simultaneously. One of the projects feels safe and familiar, which is not always a bad thing. The other project however, is a different beast. It doesn't feel safe and familiar at all but I like the images I have so far.

We'll see where all this goes.

Of interest: (When-poetry-and-photography-intersect edition)

+Sweet Flypaper of Life, a celebration of and meditation on Harlem by two titans: photographer Roy DeCarava and poet Langston Hughes

+Alec Soth's Friday Poems (from his late, great and thoroughly missed personal blog, archived here for posterity)

+Paired, a series of poems paired with complementary photographs via Personism

The B-R-O-O-K-L-Y-N--come again?

2009-02-27T01:15:00.014-05:00

I'm in love with James Brandon King's photos. His website is full of the light-drenched warehouses of DUMBO; the dreamy, subdued colors of the tenements and brownstones in his Bed-Stuy/Clinton Hill neighborhood; and the loose, easy gestures of his friends and family. The genuine warmth and tenderness in King's photos makes them so compelling. I see a million different narratives within them and I want to know where they all lead.

It's fairly easy to learn how to shoot a technically proficient image. What's much more difficult to do and what most photographers strive for (I hope anyway), is to use your camera to give shape and substance to the swirl of emotions, thoughts and impulses in your mind and heart; all the things that make you who and what you are. King does a fine job at both. He's a great technician and an emotional, intuitive shooter. I'm glad I found his site, which happened quite by accident.

Of Interest: (Spread-love-it's-the-Brooklyn-way edition)

Brooklyn Go Hard: Jay-Z+ Santogold+ Kanye West. This one grew on me;
it took me a while to get past Jay's Jafakin' patois.

Brooklyn Go Hard: Mos Def (Live)
Mos Def is coming out with a new album, The Ecstatic, this summer and not a moment too soon. Can't believe it's been 10 years since Black on Both Sides came out; that makes
me feel old.

Brooklyn's New Culinary Movement via the NY Times. Great article, I just wish they
had featured some people of color. They couldn't find any involved in a burgeoning culinary arts scene in Brooklyn?

Me, Myself, An Eye: Hilarious, thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining musings of a Brooklynite by way of D.C. by way of Chicago.

Tania Leshkina

2009-02-19T22:42:00.006-05:00

I'm really drawn to Tania Leshkina's work even though (or perhaps because?) there's something slightly unsettling about the two series up on her site right now, Balance and Voidentity (which the above image is taken from). Check out her work here.

Of interest: (no-particular-theme edition)
+ The Electronic Mayhem of Jack Davey (blog of Jack Davey, frontwoman for one of my favorite bands, J*DaVeY)

+I Thought I Was Alone (photography collective)

+Club Mumble (evolving website about art, photography, street culture and skateboarders)

+Listopad (DC-based fashion + style blog. Lots of fun.)

Dodge & Burn

2009-02-18T21:17:00.006-05:00

Pardon the shameless plug but I was interviewed for Dodge & Burn, as a part of photographer and blogger Qiana Mestrich's ongoing series of interviews with photographers of color. I'm pretty excited that I was asked to be a part of it. Check it out if you like.

Always Be Closing Photographing

2009-02-14T10:00:00.006-05:00

from Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992

Just a reminder to myself that I need to have my camera with me all the time. On Thursday night, I checked out Marti Jones Dixon's art opening at Jackie's a restaurant/gallery in downtown Silver Spring. Marti is a singer/songwriter as well as an accomplished painter from Canton, Ohio. She even whipped out her guitar and sang whenever she sold a painting. (She performed a suite of three songs.) I had a blast, even though I didn't know anyone. I met a lot of interesting folks, most of whom drove from Canton to be at the show. I even got a chance to talk to the artist herself, who was very warm and humble.

Her paintings, consisting of portraits of her friends and volunteers reminded me a bit of Elizabeth Peyton, in that the forms and figures are more implied than photorealistic. I also loved the way she used color, mostly cool blues and warm reds and oranges. My favorite was a portrait of her daughter, floating in a pool, looking almost otherworldly. I'm glad I went against my instincts to stay in and ended up at a wonderful little gallery. But I want to stop forgetting my camera so much.

Union Station, Washington, D.C., January 2009

2009-02-05T22:46:00.004-05:00

Or, "Waiting for Obama", whistle stop tour, Washington, D.C.

...Do Sometimes Go Awry

2009-01-29T22:17:00.011-05:00

First, I didn't have my camera on Election Day + Night. Then on Inauguration Day, I caught the flu. I only managed to snap a few photos on Pennsylvania Avenue before getting quite ill and going home, where I was parked on my couch for almost three days straight. I really wish I was able to shoot more last Tuesday. But you know what they say. Best laid plans, etc. etc.

For several other reasons I'd rather not get into, January 2009 has been a beast of a month. So I'll just concentrate on the things that provide occasional bursts of pleasure during these drab, dreary days of winter and look forward to February, which brings us one step closer to the warmer, longer, sun-drenched, iced coffee, cherry blossom filled days of spring.

Of interest: (Combating-SAD-edition)
+Lotta Jansdotter: cute, affordable Swedish design

+Is There a Bit of Obama In You?: Lovely conceptual portrait project by Detroit Free Press photographer Romain Blanquart

+Jen Gotch and her love affair with Polaroids

+The Impossible Project:only 29 million seconds left to resurrect Polaroid film

+Twitter For some reason, I'm really intrigued by what people say in 140-character bursts. We'll see how long this lasts.

+Portraiture Now: Feature Photography, an exhibition of portraits by Katy Grannan, Jocelyn Lee, Ryan McGinley, Steve Pyke, Martin Schoeller and Alec Soth (!) is up at the National Portrait Gallery. Honestly, it was a bit of an uneven show for me but I loved seeing Alec Soth's work up close and on a wall for the first time. I've only seen his work in books, magazines and online, and seeing his prints in person...wow. Oh yeah, and Schoeller's portrait of some guy named Barack Obama is up too, in case you missed out on the Richard Avedon exhibit at the Corcoran.

Present Imperfect

2008-12-31T01:21:00.008-05:00

It's so easy to constantly look back at the past, wondering what would have happened if you had taken a zig as opposed to a zag, and to fret over what the future holds, and how to plan for any and every curve ball that life will toss you. What is much harder to do is to live in the now, to be wholly in the moment and put aside all those nagging "What if?" questions.

So rather than make a list of what made 2008 so great and so terrible all at once, rather than make a list of resolutions that I know deep down I won't keep; rather than keep tally of the people, places and things that (I hope) will make 2009 so much better than the past twelve months, what I will do is focus more on being in the present.

Here's hoping that leads to a happy, healthy, and fruitful new year.

Note to self

2008-12-11T21:05:00.005-05:00

Dear Danielle,

Snap the [bleep] out of it.

Of interest:

+I'll be contributing book reviews to 81 Press, (founded by Carla Williams),which is dedicated to highlighting photo books created by artists from the African Diaspora. My first review: Pitch Blackness by Hank Willis Thomas.

+One of my photos was recently featured on the cover of Carousel, the journal/catalogue of the Writer's Center in Bethesda, Md. I was also interviewed for First Person Plural, the Center's blog, which ran on Election Day. (Where does the time go?)

+Dalton Rooney (Of course I would stumble upon this amazing portfolio and blog when he's decided to take a break from it but the images and writing from Rooney are some of the most thoughtful I've encountered in a long while.)

+Wish I could go to this, Philly's not that far away.

+ This Chicago native is certainly not surprised by the Blagojevich fiasco. If you're going to be corrupt in Illinois, it's go hard or go home. Or jail, whatever.

Transatlantic love

2008-12-02T22:54:00.003-05:00

I meant to post this much, much, much earlier but this summer I had the chance to interview one of my favorite artists, Kesha Bruce for the Liberator's artist of the month feature. She recently gave me and the magazine a shout-out, and it's funny to see that she called us a "hipster" publication. I've never considered myself as anything but a nerd and one of the semi-regular running features on the blog is African Nerd Boy/Girl's toolkit so that made for a pleasant read. Although I guess the most appropriate term for us would be "blipster" magazine, no?

She posted our interview here. Go here if you want the hard copy.