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Adrian White
Sankofa, 2018
Archival pigment print, 40 x 60 inches
Edition 1/5, signed, verso
Unframed
Courtesy of the artist
Estimated value: $3,000
Performance artist Raïssa Mata and I created this image at Far Rockaway Beach in New York in the winter of 2018. It was so cold that day and almost completely empty. It is not wrong to go back for which you have forgotten. In the case of the African American, we were forced to assimilate—to become something other than ourselves. And time trudges on. We wear two masks. The image is dominated by the gaze of the second face as our first face gazes in the opposite direction. The relationship with the past, present, and an idyllic future is what I was after with this image. Hope.
About the Artist:
Adrian White
Los Angeles–based photographer Adrian White creates portraiture primarily dealing with memory, trauma, and history from the perspective of people of the African diaspora. His goal is to connect with his ancestors by remembering the past, documenting the present, and imagining a utopian future.
White was born and raised in the small tobacco and cotton town of Stantonsburg, NC. He received his BA degree from North Carolina Central University in Durham (2002); his BFA from Brooks Institute of Photography, Santa Barbara, CA (2014); and his MFA in photography, video, and other related media from Parsons School of Design, New York.
“My photographic process places as much an emphasis on preserving memories as it does creating images. Memories have the power to heal. We just have to pay attention to what they’re trying to tell us.”
Website: adrianwhitephotography.com
Instagram: @adrianwhitephoto
Venmo: @adrian-white-55
Cashapp: $photographybyadubb
