A man diverts his gaze away from the camera, and stares downwards at the grainy fabric that his elbows rest on. His chin is neatly tucked between wrist and chest; he wears a doleful expression on his face. A blotch of light wavers on his forehead, trickles down his nose and moves outwards across his folded arms. In his book Camera Lucida, the theorist Roland Barthes famously spoke of the “punctum” — the unique element of a photograph that conveys something powerful and emotive outside of language. In this sense, it would be right to say that the ray of light stretching across the photograph from the left side and spilling onto the young man’s skin is Barthes’ punctum, impacting the viewer in a poignant, emotional way that reaches inwards and defies the modest limits of description.
The photography of John Edmonds operates on this exalted plane — a plane that while rooted in the symbology of the everyday and in the faces of ordinary people, somehow transcends the noise of humdrum life. It’s no wonder then that the New York-based photographer has titled his first monograph Higher — a poetic indication of what he desires of his photographs. Comprised primarily of images of young black men taken between 2011 and 2018 (with texts by Durga Chew Bose, Mickalene Thomas and Dr. Aaron Ross), Higher is a uniquely tender, thoughtful and sensitive photobook that elevates not just its photographic subjects, but also the medium itself.
As the prizewinner of the inaugural Capricious Photo Award in January 2018, Edmonds was given the space to realise his sustained and considered project. “I wanted to create a psychological journey through time and space,” Edmonds tells SLEEK about his intention for his first book. Inspired by photographic precedents such as Mickalene Thomas, Sally Mann and Philip Lorca-Dicorcia, Edmonds’ photographs stand out precisely for their warm psychological intensity — there is something extremely moving in his foregrounding of closed-eyes, bare bodies, and downcast glances that summon pause and a silent moment of reflection.
The meditative quality of Edmonds’ images hinges on his very deliberate and very beautiful use of natural light. A golden glow illuminates the photographs in Higher in a manner that recalls the holy luminescence of Renaissance religious painting. In an interview with Mickalene Thomas, Edmonds says, “For me the images have a glow, almost, coming from within, it’s as if the light on the subject is coming from an internal source”. It’s a premise embedded in the concept of the divine, where light functions as indexical mark of a higher, celestial presence, and of a greater truth. This is something that Edmonds emphatically insists upon. “The light is a guide. Lux et veritas. Where there is light, there is the potential to see truth,” he states. “ I am a firm believer that everything done in the darkness comes to the light. Light has the power to conceal, reveal, console…light can also be violent. Light is everything. Everything!”
Combined with his startling wielding of light, Edmonds’ photographs are truly remarkable for their compassionate depiction of young black men. He captures quiet introspective moments — two lovers entwined on a bed; a young man sleeping; a man wrapped in the fuzz of a green towel, facing away. Interspersing these pensive, laconic portraits, is a thought-provoking collection of images that serve as an apparent taxonomy of young men — seen only from behind, Edmonds photographs anonymous models in hoods and du-rags, as well as close-ups of slicked, gelled hair.
For all their seeming simplicity, these images are incredibly powerful, summoning questions about — as Edmonds has put it — “who gets to name the other and why?” He expands, “In both series, I was interested in unpacking and undoing the cultural bias these items are attached to. Additionally, I was interested in proposing the question: ‘how is it that we assign language to who and what we cannot see?’” Edmonds describes this prejudice as a “type of violence” — these photographs compel us to to challenge our own biases and the sort of dangerous ideas that we affix to ostensibly innocuous cultural artefacts.
In spite of this, Edmonds points out that he doesn’t want his work to be interpreted only on an political level. “The common misconception is that the work is about rebutting stereotypes or that it’s mainly concerned with politics. I have no desire to transcend identity,” reveals Edmonds. “I operate from a place of feeling. I want the viewer to accept the façade but to also see beyond the façade. Photography is a medium of artifice and surface. Disentangling perception from reality has always been a part of my ambitions.”
As a photographer, Edmonds is interested in the “in-between” and “the importance of nuance”. He does not wish to overstate, exaggerate, instruct or impose, but instead his photos compel the viewer to reflect, and open themselves up to real, human feeling. For this reason, Edmonds’ Higher is defined by its extraordinary empathy and radiant humility that pierces something deep within the viewer —à la Barthes’ punctum. Edmonds says it best when he says that he hopes his images convey “Emotionality, beauty, nuance, respect”. There was never a truer word spoken.
“Higher” by John Edmonds is now available for pre-order from Capricious.
All images by John Edmonds, courtesy of Capricious.