WHEN THINGS BREAK...
All right, folx: let me share a little something with you! I met my wife, Kechi after I got my first book deal and had to have solid head shots for promo purposes. I was out of the comedy scene by then, but still friends with a lot of New Orleans comics, and I'd seen her portraits posted online.
Over the years, I'd had a lot of photos taken by people who didn't know how to light my dark skin, so I for sure wanted someone who understood how to make me look like I belonged in the world. Kechi came to my uptown apartment and shot me in the courtyard. The whole time, I couldn't stop laughing--partly because an aspect of my life I'd never expected to pan out was finally paying off, but also because there was something about Kechi that just made me feel lighter on my feet, buoyant.
Kechi does fantastic things with light. Yes, physical light, but also on the spiritual side. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people look at photos she's taken of them and be amazed because for the first time, they are seeing their inner light visualized.
For the past few months, Kechi has been taking photos of SF authors for a commissioned series. The theme is WHEN THINGS BREAK, I WRITE... and the results are truly wonderful. She's taken photos of these amazing BIPOC SF authors... and me! It's a crazy circumstance to be married to someone I know for a fact sees me so well, so I'ma just keep singing them praises!
The theme of this series struck a chord for me, especially, because I found out in September what happens when things break for me. My knee injury was the worst pain, worst physical damage of my life and without Kechi, I would have had to run home and move back in with my family. She lifted me up, she took care of me, and she helped keep me on task as I walked--and continue to walk--a healing road.
Last Sunday, Kechi, LP Kindred, and I headed up to Madison, WI for the Watershed Readings Series at the Art Lit Lab. Kechi's photo series has been hanging there for the past month, and seeing them in the gallery was a revelation. It's not that she has transformed me and my colleagues into works of art, but that she has revealed what we have always been. It's hard to overstate what that has meant to me over these past few years. I feel like everyone needs the kind of portrait only Kechi can provide. You can see the photos from this series at the link!
https://tinyurl.com/h4hvy9sa