Reinvention

When Andre sent me this picture and titled it "Reinvention", I knew it was a gesture of love. A memorial of the person I was and the person he has watched me become.

Currently based in Baltimore, Photographer Andre Brown is an emerging contemporary photographer that centers Blackness through his work, telling the stories of family members and loved ones. 

His work commonly features grain and noise, to create a lived feeling and pull on hidden emotions that may not be otherwise clear to the viewer. 

Andre has been a close friend of mine for a time now, almost 5 years or so. In this time, he has seen me morph and change, he has seen me fail, fall, laugh, cry, rejoice, experience hardship, and succeed. 

This photo project came to life on a random Saturday in May 2022. I invited Andre to an event hosted by Black Ass Flea Market and at some point, we began reminiscing on all those years we spent together. The summers we spent going to random bars, meeting new people, talking about our relationship with masculinity, growing together as people and so much more that should be left unsaid. 

Unlike the last time he had seen me, I now donned a scarf, a dyed beard, and a septum ring. I had changed and yet, it was almost like nothing had changed. He has always been a friend to me and that moment proved that. 

At the end of the day, Andre requested to take a picture of me and this photograph is a product of our realignment and reconnection.