New York City / July 26, 2020
Five years ago, we worked together with my friend Anatolli on this story, still one of my most favorite. As always, we collaborated closely on the art directing. I remember well our long debates around the table in my living room.
How wide and complex seemed to be for me back then, the scale of the issue he introduced to, probably for the very first time in my life, was indescribable. I thought I was already conscious enough to understand how the world works, but I couldn't be more wrong.
Finally, from an entire repertoire of formal elements we were thinking of, we decided to use just the simplest one, the zip codes. Placed on black bodies in a decorative way, each of them represented a separate and unacceptable tragedy of another black life, unlawfully taken too early.
I feel much more touched sharing these thoughts today than five years ago, because - I hope - my understanding of our responsibilities, duties, ignorance and privileges is at least a bit different. But what I really learned since then is, how much I still have to learn, how much has to be done, and that's probably no such a point like enough.
Five years later, the list of zip codes only extended deadly, seems to be an infinity long, while the title of the story became unbearable accurate to me.
New York City / May 30, 2020
Created a series of images for Open Lab magazine 5 years ago to highlight the strength, beauty and resilience of black people in America, in the face of ongoing white supremacist terrorism and police violence. Black lives seen as mere statistics, numbers to be counted in death tolls or prison population numbers.
29401 the numbers written on the face marked the location in Charleston SC where terrorist Dylan Roof murdered 9 unarmed black worshippers then was treated to water and Burger King by the arresting officers on his way to jail. It is way past enough. We are exhausted.
Anatolli Smith
63135 represents Ferguson, Missouri where on August 9, 2014, an 18-year-old Michael Brown, was fatally shot by Darren Wilson with the Ferguson Police Department.
21211 represents Baltimore, Maryland where on April 12, 2015, Freddie Carlos Gray Jr., a 25-year-old black man, died shortly after being arrested by the Baltimore Police Department. While being transported in a police van, Gray fell into a coma and was taken to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center. Gray died on April 19, 2015 and his death was ascribed to injuries to his spinal cord. On April 21, 2015, pending an investigation of the incident, six Baltimore police officers were suspended. The circumstances of the injuries were initially unclear; eyewitness accounts suggested that the officers involved used unnecessary force against Gray during the arrest. This claim denied by all officers involved.
New York City / May 30, 2020
10301 on Achok’s hands marked the location in Staten Island where NYPD officers murdered Eric Garner. Shot in 2015, this image still feels relevant today to any number of locations across this country where the disregard for black life is rampant and persistent. We did not begin this, but we will end it.
Anatolli Smith
Art Directing / Dominik Tarabanski & Anatolli Smith
Photo / Dominik Tarabanski
Styling / Anatolli Smith
Model / Achok Majak
Model / Adonis Bosso
Makeup / Francisca Saavedra
Manicure / Kiyo Okada
Styling Assistants / Katie Eytch & Elisa Park
Photo Assistant / Bogdan Teslar Kwiatkowski
Producers / Jessica Kahn & Wojtek Szaulinski
Production Assistant / Cleo Cwiek
Studio / Candy Studio NYC
Retouch / Bartek Klus
Thank you all.