I am gospel.
fashion photography:
krystal rené
gallery photography:
j leshaé
I am clear that I am not a model, but I have a lot of fun brainstorming concepts, styling hair and ‘fits, and producing visuals, stories, and conversations. Yesterday, Krystal and I did a photo shoot at the downtown library for the Journey to God exhibition. “All of this is my live action vision board,” I told her in reference to the exhibition, and we played. Laughed. Were little girls.
It was so much fun.
I borrowed inspiration from my Southern church girl roots and leaned heavily into divine femininity for the Journey to God photo shoot. I paired a sheer nylon dress from Forever 21 with a white tulle petticoat that I found deep in the racks of the Oak Cliff Lula B’s and made slips into an outfit. I added a white fascinator, because a mother must have her hat, and I finished the look with lace gloves and mirror-metallic Steve Madden pumps. A little old school and a little new. A little conservative and a little alternative. A fashion narrative to match the photo narrative that tells a divergent genesis story with a fresh perspective: African and Matriarchal.
The photos in the Journal to God collection are from my travels to Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso where stories from the beginning of time are etched into stone. In these Mother Lands, I learned of nature as authority, worship of womb beings, biological intelligences, and inner divinity; ideas that largely contradict Western world teachings.
My travels revealed a story of human transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, from balance to dominance, from organics to synthetics, and from life to lack. For those of us in pursuit of healing and balance for ourselves and world, the ancient walls suggest that reconciling our relationships with wombs in all of her forms – human, ancestral, environmental, and spiritual – may be the best medicine.
During the era of Western European imperialism, the King James Bible was used as a tool of justification for the genocide, terrorism, inhumane capture, and violent abuse of dark skinned (ab)original people around the world. The Bible was also used to injure the psyche of enslaved and colonized people, demonizing their core identities, indigenous technologies, and cultural relationships to energy and nature. God morphed into an male external entity and the idea of internal and female divinity became blasphemous. Even Darkness, which in ancient African belief systems is celebrated as the source from which all things come, was redefined to be synonymous with “evil”, “devil” and African.
I reincarnated an art form perfected by our American foremothers and forefathers and employed bible verses as coded messages that map the journey to divinity. All photos in the Journey to God exhibition are titled after bible verses to invite reinterpretation and discussion.
Journey to God
Return to the Mother | Land Exhibition
Matthew 10:28
invocation: j leshaé//project: journey to god//photographer: krystal rené//wardrobe: j leshaé
DIVINE DESIGN
Journey to God
January 17, 202020
I am gospel.
fashion photography: krystal rené
gallery photography: j leshaé
I am clear that I am not a model, but I have a lot of fun brainstorming concepts, styling hair and ‘fits, and producing visuals, stories, and conversations. Yesterday, Krystal and I did a photo shoot at the downtown library for the Journey to God exhibition. “All of this is my live action vision board,” I told her in reference to the exhibition, and we played. Laughed. Were little girls.
It was so much fun.
I borrowed inspiration from my Southern church girl roots and leaned heavily into divine femininity for the Journey to God photo shoot. I paired a sheer nylon dress from Forever 21 with a white tulle petticoat that I found deep in the racks of the Oak Cliff Lula B’s and made slips into an outfit. I added a white fascinator, because a mother must have her hat, and I finished the look with lace gloves and mirror-metallic Steve Madden pumps. A little old school and a little new. A little conservative and a little alternative. A fashion narrative to match the photo narrative that tells a divergent genesis story with a fresh perspective: African and Matriarchal.
slip dress: forever 21// petticoat: thrift-uptown cheapskate// shoes: steve madden
The photos in the Journal to God collection are from my travels to Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso where stories from the beginning of time are etched into stone. In these Mother Lands, I learned of nature as authority, worship of womb beings, biological intelligences, and inner divinity; ideas that largely contradict Western world teachings.
My travels revealed a story of human transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, from balance to dominance, from organics to synthetics, and from life to lack. For those of us in pursuit of healing and balance for ourselves and world, the ancient walls suggest that reconciling our relationships with wombs in all of her forms – human, ancestral, environmental, and spiritual – may be the best medicine.
But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother‘s breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly. Psalm 22:9-10
Photographer: Darryl Patterson, 2020