Join us for an online conversation between exhibition curator Elliott Ramsey and artists Jorian Charlton, Jamal Nxedlana and Elliott Jerome Brown Jr about their work in As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic. In this moderated talk, the artists will discuss their processes, their perspectives on agency and artistic control in contemporary photography, and how photographic subjects become co-creators of their own images. From the way they are styled to their relationship with the camera, the figures in these artists’ works are not passive sitters, but performers and collaborators.

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About Jorian Charlton
Jorian Charlton (b. 1989, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a photographer working in portraiture. Her work focuses on Jamaican-Canadian culture through her personal experiences and that of her community, highlighting themes of Black family life, intimacy, community, and love. Charlton takes poetic approaches to her portraits, working with her models to create atmospheres, fashions, and poses that tell stories about Caribbean diasporas while addressing contemporary modes of Black representation.

About Jamal Nxedlana
Jamal Nxedlana (b. 1985, Durban; lives Johannesburg South Africa) is a visual artist and cultural organiser. He is in the unique position of being both a cultural producer and the founder of a number of independent organisations which support the South Africa arts community. His photography and images are rooted in Afrosurrealism and explore themes of race, identity, popular culture and mass production. He is the founder of Bubblegum Club, a cultural organisation and digital platform which curates and celebrates new pop culture. He is also a founding member of the artistic collective CUSS Group. Over the last decade, this Johannesburg based collective has explored the hybrid culture of post-post-colonial South Africa.

About Elliott Jerome Brown Jr.
Elliott Jerome Brown Jr. (b. 1993, Baldwin, New York) is an artist, photographer, and educator currently based in Queens, New York. In his personal practice, he uses photography to explore representation through privacy and fiction. Occasionally the work turns away from standard archival prints to examine photography as a sculptural, redactive, and site-specific process.

Photo: Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Devin in Red Socks, 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York. From As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic (Aperture, 2021)