Papa Don't Preach by D'Angelo Lovell Williams
Was Blind, But Now I See (Granny), 2019 © D’Angelo Lovell Williams, Higher Pictures, Janice Guy Gallery
D’Angelo Lovell Williams delivers an intimate photo series with their new exhibition, Papa Don’t Preach, which explores feelings of closeness and love through kinship. With Pride month commencing, portraits of Black queer intimacy become more than just photography; they assert the nuances of both queerness and Blackness to showcase the beating heart of the LGBTQ community, one that isn’t set in stone, but rather embodies many identities at once. Pride month has too often been centered around white, neoliberal queerness, one that can conform to the socioeconomic structures that keep the people in power looking all too homogenous. With a photo series such as this, identity politics and epistemology don’t get the focus. Viewers aren’t asking, is this gay enough? Is it straight enough, or is it Black enough? The images don’t pique such questions. They simply exist.
Nah, 2019, ©D’Angelo Lovell Williams, Higher Pictures, Janice Guy Gallery
Williams was diagnosed with HIV this past January. After choosing a small group of people in their chosen family to tell, they recently shared this information with the public. Papa Don’t Preach is dripping in self-exploration, and sexual discovery. They insist that “Discovery is one of the driving forces behind the work.” By capturing images of their body in different settings, domestic and public, Williams centers their series around an ethereal realm, one where Black people can examine the generational traumas of the past, and traumas of the present day. With such a diverse range of poses, and subjects, they show a space of exploration for Black and queer bodies, whose narrative has too often been obscured by white storytelling.
Daddy Issues, 2019, ©D’Angelo Lovell Williams, Higher Pictures, Janice Guy Gallery
Whether it’s a photo of their granny shoving her hand in their face, or a portrait titled ‘Daddy Issues’ involving a gripping round of arm wrestling, Papa Don’t Preach highlights dynamics of kinship and family love. “My father and my mama’s mama, both reborn and never to sin again, provoke a renewed existence,” Williams explains. That idea, of being born again and a sense of renewal, one deeply steeped in their family history, examines ways that queer narratives can be retold, and Black spirits can re-exist. These images, with the involvement of close family, document complicated relationships of love.
Elysian, 2018, ©D’Angelo Lovell Williams, Higher Pictures, Janice Guy Gallery
Aside from family, Williams can be seen interacting with the natural world. In one, a lightweight white gown floats around their underwater body, like a spirit staying tethered to its owner. In another titled “Elysian”, Williams, in fishnets, emerges from a dead palm tree, like a creature of the earth pulling a person’s body into the land. They describe Papa Don’t Preach by saying it “mimics portals, delivering us to parts of our history that still linger in the every day.” With these portals, Williams takes viewers into a world of photography reminiscent of cyclical time. They are not set in the past, the present, or the future, but rather find refuge in the generations of the past, the souls of the present, and tender lovers of the future.
Transference (Reprise), 2019 ©D’Angelo Lovell Williams, Higher Pictures, Janice Guy Gallery
You can see more of Williams’ work here.
