BLACK DOCUMENTS: FREEDOM

November 25 through December 15, 2017
Andrew Freedman Home • 1125 Grand Concourse
Bronx, NYC

Jamel Shabazz: Black Documents is complemented by Black Documents: Freedom, photographic works by Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Lola Flash, Danny Ramon Peralta, Edwin Torres, and Michael Young. Their photos offer a contemplative appraisal of conversations between lens and subject, and give further agency to black lives. All share a similar aesthetic path as Shabazz while exploring a variety of social, gender, and urban geographies. Laura James, curator.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Opening Reception
Saturday, November 25, 6-9pm
Jamel Shabazz: Black Documents and Black Documents: Freedom

Artist Talk: Black Documents: Freedom
Thursday, November 30, 6-8pm
Photographers Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Lola Flash, Danny Ramon Peralta, Edwin Torres, and Michael Young. Coreen Simpson, facilitator

Artist Talk & Closing Reception
Sunday, December 17, 3-7pm
Jamel Shabazz in conversation with exhibitions curator Laura James and closing reception for Jamel Shabazz: Black Documents and Black Documents: Freedom

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn is a photographer based in New York City. The Lucie Foundation included Barrayn on the Shortlist for the 2016 “Photo Taken” Emerging Photographer Prize. Her work has been supported with grants from Columbia University’s Institute for Research in African American Studies and the Research Foundation of the City University of New York. She is a three-time recipient of the Community Arts Grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council. BRIC Arts selected her as a 2015 Media Arts Fellow.

Ms. Barrayn has been profiled in The Washington Post, Exposure the journal of The Society for Photographic Education, Upscale Magazine, Black Enterprise and The New York Times; and has curated exhibitions at the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Brooklyn Public Library, the Port Authority of NY/NJ, galleries and non-traditional spaces. Her work has been exhibited internationally and has been published in the Smithsonian-produced anthology, BLACK: A Celebration of a Culture, edited by photography historian and professor Dr. Deborah Willis of New York University. Her latest project on the Baye Fall sufi order of Senegal was exhibited at Galleria Biagiottie in Florence, Italy and at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), New York in 2015. www.laylahbarrayn.com

Lola Flash uses photography to challenge stereotypes and offer new ways of seeing that transcend and interrogate gender, sexual, and racial norms. She received her bachelor’s degree from Maryland Institute and her Masters from London College of Printing, in the UK. Flash works primarily in portraiture with a 4×5 film camera, engaging those who are often deemed invisible. In 2008, she was a resident at Lightwork. Most recently, Flash was awarded an Art Matters grant, which allowed her to further two projects, in Brazil and London. Flash has work included in important public collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Her work is featured in the publication Posing Beauty, edited by Deborah Willis, currently on exhibit across the US, and she is in the current award winning film Through A Lens Darkly. Flash’s work welcomes audiences who are willing to not only look but see. www.lolaflash.com

Danny Ramon Peralta is a New York City born visual artist of Dominican descent. As a documentary photographer, he attempts to use the camera as a tool to change negative perceptions about his community. After graduating with a Bachelors of Arts and Science degree from NYU’s School of Education in 2000, Peralta began working as a youth educator and community developer. In 2002, while searching to expand upon his love for reality, art and storytelling, he formally began attending black and white photography workshops at International Center of Photography (ICP) at The Point in the South Bronx. In 2005 he was awarded the Jocelyn Benzakin Fellowship for concerned photography by the International Center of Photography.

For the past decade, Peralta has turned his camera onto his immediate family and community, completing compelling projects like Ma (winner of a 2007 BRIO Award), LOVE LIVES (a call for trauma relief in Hunts Point) and Gimme Some Show (a ten year project about underground hip-hop in the Bronx), and most recently the En Foco Photo Legacy Award winning project ‘Bout that Life (a series that follows an undocumented Bronxite as he navigates his life in NYC). In 2016, his work was prominently featured in photo essays in publications including Nueva Luz Photographic Journal and The New York Times.

In 2009, Peralta co-founded Peasant Podium Music, curating live musical showcases and visual art experiences with local and international artists. In the fall of 2015, Danny became the executive managing director of The Point CDC, leading revitalization efforts in the South Bronx. He lives in NYC with his wife and two sons, who inspire his every endeavor. www.dannykodak.tumblr.com

Edwin J. Torres is a Bronx-born photographer preoccupied with uncovering stories about family life and disenfranchised communities that are often overlooked. He graduated from Colby College with a degree in American Studies, which sparked his intellectual curiosity about history, current events, and the representation of cultures in a variety of media.

Torres is a regular contributor to The New York Timesand an editor at large for the Ground Truth Project’s Emerging Photographer Series. He is a member of the Bronx Photo League, which is attached to The Bronx Documentary Center, and a member of the BX200 Visual Artist Directory in the Bronx. www.edwintorrespf.com

Michael Young is a portrait, event, and street photographer who was introduced to photography at an early age by a relative who was obsessed with documenting “all the family happenings.” Young’s work has been published in Natural Hollywood and Fotographia, and was recently featured in the Bronx X Bronx exhibition at the Bronx Documentary Center. His photos will also be featured in upcoming exhibitions Bronx Stories, an outdoor installation at the new Roberto Clemente Plaza and in Longwood Art Gallery’s Noir: Defining the Melodrama exhibition. Young is currently working on an ongoing series, The Underworld: Subway Stories. He lives and works in the Bronx, and is a member of the BX200 Visual Artist Directory. www.mgyoungphotography.com