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Jan. 17: Week in Photography
Your lens to the internet's most powerful photographs.
📸For Your 👀 Only: The Next Renaissance Black Boy Fly In honor of Martin Luther King day, A3 Magazine will launch its inaugural issue this week, exploring the creative impact of Black creativity on the world, from fashion to street art. We spoke with Azia Javier, the founder of the publication, and Andre Wagner, the photographer featured on the first cover, about the new Black renaissance that they see underway.
I counted a few people in the issue who had an experience a lot of us very much relate to — growing up knowing that you're a creative type but not really knowing how to firm that up and move it forward as a career path. Can you both please speak to that?
Azia: For me, A3 Magazine is my creative medium at this point. I’ve always been a creative person. I’ve always been in the arts, but before this I hadn’t picked that one medium. I wouldn’t consider myself a photographer or a painter or anything like that. I have met so many Black and brown creatives over time that I thought I could curate these stories and highlight all of these amazing people in one space, and that’s super fulfilling to me. So it was cool when that manifested in a print and digital magazine because it felt like, Cool, I figured out my medium — magazines! Now, we’re able to do so many different things, whether it’s the photo shoot and having ideas behind that or working with Andre on a photo essay. That’s a dream. It’s definitely been a journey, but I’m excited because it feels like a part of my creative journey to highlight all these other people, and that’s super fulfilling for me.
Andre: It’s been a journey for me too. Growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, as a kid, I was a basketball player, and that was so much of my identity. When I was growing up, I was always internally artistic. I would always draw and do a lot of doodling. I’m really into calligraphy and handwriting. But my basketball talent outweighed anything else that I did, and so I didn’t really have any introduction to art growing up. It wasn’t really until I quit playing basketball at the collegiate level that I started digging into photography and exploring it. I also started just taking art more seriously. A lot of that was revealed to me by moving to New York. New York turned my whole world upside down. I think it just took time for me and my interests to kind of merge into how I practice the medium now.
Andre Wagner Azia: I definitely agree. I’m originally from Chicago, and New York changes your mindset as far as what’s possible and exposes you to a whole different level of art in my opinion. Back in Chicago, my dad is super into graffiti, and we would go around and look at graffiti. I have a ton of graffiti books from Brazil, Chicago, all these random spots — because it was something that we loved when I was a kid. New York definitely immerses you in a way that is like, oh wait this is possible? And then you just start digging and diving and finding your own lane in that way.
How would you define a creative, or being one?
One theme I noticed running through the magazine is faith. Would either of you like to speak to that?
Andre: Faith is really important for me in my own personal life. I grew up in the church. My dad’s a pastor. But also being a street photographer, going out into the streets, and trying to make pictures, I have to have faith and belief. These pictures don’t happen and the pictures don’t come if you don’t believe there’s something great out there.
Alteronce Gumby Azia: Throughout the magazine, it’s interesting because each of the creatives I spoke to, to some extent and without explicitly discussing religion, they all had some background with faith. One, just on a spiritual level, but also trusting themselves and trusting that whatever they are, whatever the obstacles they face, that what they want to do creatively, matters and has a higher purpose. I definitely saw that as a theme — that in each interview everyone gave their light at the ended of the tunnel, and it feels like there’s some energy that you need to be putting out into the world in order to get it back.
Last year and everything that happened, being able to pull off a magazine in five months — I can do it. If I can do that in five months, then what can I do in 12? You want to push yourself. And if I didn’t have faith, I wouldn’t believe in that.
What’s something that gives you hope for the future?
Azia: In the past five to six years, from my perspective, there’s been a renaissance where I feel like so many people [are] really finding their lane and being proud of it, which is really exciting. This Black creative community, we’ve always been there, but now they are feeling strongly about their voice and are coming into their own. I see a lot more of that, of people being able to say, “I am a creative person and I stand in this lane,” and in that way they are able to speak their truth.
Andre: Yeah. I think what gives me hope is continuing to have this national reckoning with who we are as a country. I think a lot of what needs to change doesn’t fall on the backs of Black people. I think a lot of the conversations that are happening — and, unfortunately, a lot of things that are playing out in this country — is just revealing who we are. Hopefully we’ll be able to rise to the occasion and continue to change our future. A3 Magazine 📸THE WEEK'S PHOTO STORIES FROM BUZZFEED NEWS 📸 This week, in the wake of the Capitol attack, we turned inwards, focusing on the basics, and part of that meant starting with the basics — exploring what it means to be at home, what it means to have a body, a legacy.
So, as always, here are some of the best photo stories from around the internet that caught our eye and kept us thinking. SELF PORTRAITS IN COUTURE CHALLENGE THE MALE GAZE Michaela Stark SEE THE FULL STORYLIFE WITH KIDS IS PURE CHAOS Julie Blackmon SEE THE FULL STORY
A LOOK AT FAMILY, BODY IMAGE, AND THE LEGACY OF IMMIGRATION Naomieh Jovin SEE THE FULL STORY
📸SOME HOPE 📸 Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images Hope is maybe a strong word for this frame, but happy to see the safe return of Nancy Pelosi's lectern "That's it from us this time — see you next year!" —Kate and Pia “We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us.”— Ralph Hattersley Want More? Go To JPG Homepage
đź“ť This letter was edited and brought to you by the News Photo team. Kate Bubacz is the photo director based in New York and loves dogs. You can always reach us here.
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