Photographer highlights beauty ignored in struggling communities
Photographer highlights beauty ignored in struggling communities
Brittani Sensabaugh was keeping to herself wearing a hoodie that read “Oakland,” when an older white woman looked right at her.
A selection of the photographs that grew out of this work — along with others taken in other communities — form something of a homecoming show for Sensabaugh at the Betti Ono Gallery in Oakland that she’s called #222ForgottenCities:
Sensabaugh, who still lives in New York City, has assembled a multifaceted portrait of black communities — or as she prefers to call them “melanated” communities — that are frequently ignored.
Who is documenting the moments that are pure, she waves toward a gallery wall that shows a daughter riding high on her father’s shoulders and a mother leaning down to kiss her little girl.
A considerable part of the show is dedicated to children staring straight into the camera and to the natural hairstyles she finds as she walks the streets.
Back in high school, back when she was just 17 and growing up in East Oakland, Sensabaugh was setting her mind toward writing — something she got from her mom.
Two years after he gave her the camera, Sensabaugh’s brother would pass away, unexpectedly, in his sleep at the age of 28.
Two years after her brother’s death, Sensabaugh would follow fashion photography to New York, only to realize the subject was wearing thin.
When she plans a trip, she purposefully seeks out neighborhoods and projects that only get talked about relative to their crime rates.
Several images draw attention to how difficult it is to find nutritional food in these areas — a liquor sign floats in one background and a street vendor pumps his fists, full of soda, into the air.
Later, after she’s left the gallery, Sensabaugh posts two documents on her Instagram account, outlining the way tobacco companies specifically target vulnerable communities.
[...] if you leave it up to ousiders, these stories don’t get told, that beauty never comes out, and the scene on the subway repeats itself.