Aaron Turner: On abstraction and identity
In this episode, we talk with Aaron Turner about the place of identity in abstract photography and art. He discusses the inspiration behind his photographic projects, and why he chose to pursue abstraction as a medium of expression. Aaron shares the reasoning behind his decision to document his family and local community, while noting the issues that need to be considered when doing so. Aaron also talks about the experience of Black photographers following the death of George Floyd and emphasises the need to readdress the mainstream narrative of photographic history and its exclusion of Black photographers.
What you’ll find inside:
On abstract artists who were connected to the Black Arts Movement: “On one side of their practise they were deemed, by their fellow Black artists, as not contributing to the cause. Again, because their work was kind of in that realm of geometric abstraction and so you don’t see moments of, what we call now, Black joy. ... We are not painting an image, or depicting an image of Black dignity. You’re painting triangles and squares and circles.” (7:10)
“What the perception could be is that they’re trying to pass as a white artist. But if you really look into their work, and the symbols and the choices that people use in their work. Like Howardena Pindell, for example, and why she used the circle. I encourage everyone to look that up, it’s pretty fascinating. It comes from a place of her identity and her childhood. She’s not an artist trying to pass for white.” (12:18)
“The feedback that I got about documenting my own community and documenting my family was that it was not serious journalism, it was not serious work, right? It wasn’t taken seriously... until you have a person like a Latoya Ruby Frazier, at least for me as an individual, I see myself in her, right? In terms of having like the wherewithal and the bravery to sort of do those things.” (16:28)
“Now, I know this is probably true for a lot of photographers after what happened with George Floyd in Minnesota, and how people sorta had this - I don’t even know what you would call it because there are so many things that have happened since - but now all of a sudden Black photographers are sought after globally. To sort of go into communities and make the work when people have been trying to say you should have been sending us there in the first place all these other years ago.” (26:31)
“Just because I’m Black doesn’t mean I get all the rights and privileges of going into a Black community and documenting. I still have to do my job as a journalist, I still have to gain people’s trust. I still have to be ethical up to my standards. You know, that’s what I have to do with my family. Like I don’t get to just raise the camera up to my family, right? They have to get comfortable with me doing those things.” (36:09)
“Go back in history and ask: why are things the way they are?” (40:12)
“Self-publish, get the work out there yourself, don’t wait for a big publication to add authenticity to it, don’t wait for someone else to deem it valuable. Find value in it yourself.” (46:17)
“I think as photographers we have to move beyond what some people describe as photoland or the photo world. Because other things are happening around us and we have to be aware of those things to be more effective at what it is that we do.” (47:05)
What does photo ethics mean to Aaron?
“Do unto others as you would have them done unto you. That’s a principle I was raised with and still live by to this day. It’s not always easy to do that. It’s not just as simple as saying that it’s a different world when you act out and live that. ... I think being ethical is practising empathy, in the various ways that it’s possible to do that. Put ourselves in other people’s shoes, but also I think self-awareness in all interactions with people. Like being aware of the role that you play or different power dynamics or what you’re trying to accomplish by interacting with people. When you make an image of someone, what you’re taking, what they’re giving. When someone allows in their space, to spend time with them, you know, what they’re giving up, what you’re giving up, what they’re taking, what you’re taking. Maybe also like selflessness. Going into something, figuring out how it can benefit someone other than ourselves. I think that can go a long way. And so I think that also ties into, you know, why are we picking up the camera in the first place? Would we do it if we weren’t paid for it? You know, how everyone kind of comes to that way of thinking, or that understanding for themselves based on their life and decisions. So that’s what ethics is for me.” (43:07)
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Aaron Turner is a photographer and educator currently based in Arkansas, where he founded the Center for Photographers of Color at the University of Arkansas School of Art. He uses photography to pursue personal projects of people of colour in two main areas of the US: the Arkansas and Mississippi deltas. Aaron also uses the camera to create still life studies on topics of race, history, Blackness as material, and the role of the Black artist. Aaron received his MA from Ohio University and an MFA from the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. He was a 2018 Lightwork Artist in Residence at Syracuse University, a 2019 En Foco Photography Fellow, a 2020 Visual Studies Workshop Project Space AIR, and a 2020 Artist 360 Mid-American Grants Alliance recipient.
You can see his work at https://www.aaronturner.studio/
This podcast is supported by the Rebecca Vassie Trust, a UK-based charity which promotes the art of narrative photography through granting bursary awards to up-and-coming photographers, and funding public education projects like this one. This podcast has full editorial independence, and the views expressed in this series are not necessarily those of the Trust.