C*LTURE: Sanlé Sory - Anti Colonial Expressionism

A Burkinabe photographer, living and working in Bobo-Dioulasso. Sanle Sory's photographic journey began in 1960, the same year his country became independent from France as the République de Haute-Volta.

As a young photographer he documented the fast evolution of his own city, he captured the collision between modern life and centuries-old traditions from this culturally rich and rural region. He worked as a reporter, illustrator, an official photographer but most prominently as a studio photographer. It was here that he captured Bobo-Dioulasso's people with his unique wit, energy and passion. His work is captivates anti-colonial expressionism.

https://sorysanle.com

C*LTURE: Gordon Parks - Segregation Story

Gordon Parks, an extrodanary, emotive and pioneering photographer. A active humanitarian fighting endlessly for social justice both behind and in-front of the lens. With an exceptional body of work focusing on poverty, race relations and civil rights, Gordon Parks documents American life and culture from the early 1940s into the 2000s. A powerful force, he was also a distinguished composer, filmmaker and author.

“The Restraints: Open and Hidden” September 1956, Life published a photo-essay by Gordon Parks which documented the everyday activities and rituals of one extended African American family living in the rural South under Jim Crow segregation.

Untitled, Alabama, 1956

'In the wake of the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Life asked Parks to go to Alabama and document the racial tensions entrenched there. He would compare his findings with his own troubled childhood in Fort Scott, Kansas, and with the relatively progressive and integrated life he had enjoyed in Europe.' *

Willie Causey and Family, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956

'The images Gordon Parks captured in 1956 helped the world know the status quo of separate and unequal, and recorded for history an era that we should always remember, a time we never want to return to, even though, to paraphrase the boxer Joe Louis, we did the best we could with what we had. Our young people need to know the history chronicled by Gordon Parks, a man I am honored to call my friend, so that as they look around themselves, they can recognize the progress we’ve made, but also the need to fulfill the promise of Brown, ensuring that all God’s children, regardless of race, creed, or color, are able to live a life of equality, freedom, and dignity.' Charlayne Hunter-Gault - Excerpt from “Doing the Best We Could With What We Had,” Gordon Parks: Segregation Story *

At Segregated Drinking Fountain, Mobile, Alabama, 1956

Untitled, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956

Outside Looking In, Mobile, Alabama, 1956

*Taken from The Gordon Parks Foundation - gordonparksfoundation.org

?UESTIONS: Nettrice Gaskins

Archiving Culture ~ Interviews

Powerfully vibrant with a soulful touch - Artist, Author and Educator Nettrice Gaskins

Powerfully strong, can you share a snippet of your practice and how you create?

Prior to text-to-image AI tools such as Midjourney I was using image style transfer, an optimization technique used to take two images—a content image and a style reference image (such as an artwork by a famous painter)—and blend them together so the output image looks like the content image, but “painted” in the style of the style reference image. Right now I'm combining image style transfer and the newer AI tools to make images.

Where do you find inspiration?

Everywhere... literally! It is not my goal to copy the work of other artists but to look beyond what has been done before and create something new. Complimentary colors inspire me. Nature inspires me. People, too. Inspiration occurs spontaneously, without intention. I enjoy the process of entering text or uploading and even blending two or more images to create something entirely different from where I started. It's a journey but it's also about experimentation and mutual learning.

Blackness is beautifully represented, especially Black females, how and why is this important to you?

The perception people have about their past or future selves relates to their perception of their current selves. When I first started using AI to make art I seldom saw Black people or women in others' images, in ways that did not perpetuate stereotypes. I felt compelled to fill in the gap using images of Black people who were represented and shown differently. For example, when lighting a person with dark complexion, the answer is understanding how light reflects off of the skin. I was interested in seeing if I could create this effect using AI.

If you could bottle up a message to share with the world, what would it be? Be true to yourself and to what feeds your spirit. Don't get locked up in someone else's style; it'll change later. This last part is from a song I loved as a kid titled "Nobody Can Be You (But You)" by Steve Arrington.

All images by and courtesy of Nettrice Gaskins

Website: Art & Algorhythms

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