“A Re-Introduction (Profile-Pique)”
First and foremost I want to extend a huge thank you to everyone that came out last week to the Portrait Open Studio Session. Seeing everyone show up in support of my passion project to reconnect with my photographic abilities was an experience of great appreciation, humility and love. Even those of you who were unable to attend and intentionally communicated that prior to the date and time I extend the same appreciation and love.
Many of y’all may know me for various abilities from sneaker & streetwear affiliations, music, photography, film/tv production, set dressing, art department, wardrobe assistant, or other professional or friendly interactions.
For anyone that doesn’t know me and is getting to know me, I’m right there with you…
For a greater portion of my life I have spent it in servitude of various other people, entities and companies. Most recently for a film and tv industry that is currently on strike and doesn’t seem to give 2 shits about the workers and creatives that fuel it nor their families that they have to support.
Throughout my time of serving all of these various entities I have never allowed the time to be in service to myself. To love and nurture myself. To show up for myself.
Well that time is now.
What does that look like? I don’t fully know. Hence this “Profile Pique”. 📸: @theeyeofkhepera
Being someone that struggles with anxiety and overthinking myself into stagnation and complacency, I am comfortable with being uncomfortable around taking this time to take a chance on myself and my abilities.
The first step is reconnecting with my abilities as a Photographer.
In the coming days I will be sharing images of the friends, family and colleagues that attended the Portrait Session. All of whom have been instrumental to my personal and professional growth and development and need to be celebrated and honored in their own right.
For the time being, get to know me as I get to know me.
Get to know the Fly.Human.Beyond…
Peace and love! #FlyHumanBeyond
One of the most beautiful and fulfilling days of my life.
Respect and gratitude to the legendary @jamelshabazz for putting on for #Brooklyn and continuing on bridging the gap for all generations of artists and photographers worldwide.
Please tag anyone you know.
@worldphotographydaynyc@brooklynmuseum@verycoolcash #JamelShabazz #WorldPhotographyDay #HowardCash #BrooklynMuseum #OluyemiNnamdi #FlyHumanBeyond
Fly.Humans.Beyond #1: @rosegoldcoze
After participating in a spades tournament this talent brother chose to interview me. We crossed paths before but never got a chance to chop it up. After my interview was done I asked him about himself and his story that led him on his path.
While in this social media culture we tend to celebrate celebrities, let’s not forget to acknowledge the people behind the scenes that make the magic happen.
Respect!
2 years ago today my loving sister Ife Saidah Finerson transitioned into a spiritual guardian of our family.
The grief that comes and goes is hard to put into words. My sister was an amazing baker. Among her home made specialties was Bean Pie which was one of our families annual requests from her. It seems rather poetic that she transitioned in her home in the kitchen.
Coincidentally 2 weeks after her passing say I started working on the TV production of “Long Bright River”. The show’s premise is about a cop working an investigation on the deaths of local women while seeking info on her own sister’s disappearance.
The show was taped within the same street and neighborhood my sister lived and transitioned in. Each day I went to work I had to drive the same route I took doing 100+ miles an hour on the shoulder of the highway in the middle of afternoon traffic from NJ to Brooklyn when my family was notified of her condition.
Coincidence? Maybe… especially considering how big of a tv and cinema elitist she was. But if you knew Ife you knew she was the grandmaster at trolling people 😂. Initially I felt she was doing the same to me but the more time went on, the more meaning and gratitude I felt being in the position of facing the grief head on. Every day. I needed to feel it.
I spent most of my life choosing not to feel. Not to be present. Thinking that if I don’t show the real, ugly emotional rawness that it would make things better. But it does not. It only makes it worse. In fact it can possibly play a leading role in one’s untimely demise the same way it did in Ife’s.
We both possessed the inherited habit of running away from our emotions.
So today in her honor I am not running but facing it head on!
For her funeral I was tasked naturally with the production of this photo reel that played throughout the day.
Today I share this reel in honoring the love, life, importance and one of a kind energy that is Ife.
Love you always sister! #NARF!!!
Deep gratitude to @kinfolktech for holding space for sound, lineage, and collective creation. 🙏🏾
The KIN Music Series closed this past Sunday with Daniel Simmons #diggysimmons offering new unreleased music that filled the #ReadingRoomandArchives installation created by @studiotionetrice of @ofthecloth.us with spirit and forward motion — a sonic reflection on legacy and becoming.
Honored to witness and document this moment through my lens within @kinfolktech ’s ongoing art festival, where sound, ancestry, and community meet.
Be sure to visit this weekend for their KIN Closing Celebration at @wsanyc as they continue to honor the artists, collaborators, and collective spirit that shaped this series.
📍WSA - 161 Water St, NY 🎶 Daniel Simmons
📸 @flyhumanbeyond
#KinfolkTech #KINSeries #DanielSimmons #LiveMusicNYC #BlackArtFutures #ArtandSound #WSANYC #CreativeLineage #CulturalMemory #FlyHumanBeyond #OluyemiNnamdi
Happy Father’s Day @theeyeofkhepera . Love you ♾️.
Special acknowledgment to the legendary @myc_photographics of @thoughtformz on the beautiful Juneteenth Manifestation gift box.
This one features a laser cut image by Malik of The House of the Lord Pentecostal church in Brooklyn where my father used to serve as their in house photographer in the 80’s and 90’s.
From one photographer to another thru another, thank you brother! 🙏🏾
God bless to all the other fathers out there.
Special shoutout to @hycide_hyze
Bumped into this brother at the block party today & had to take a pic of him wearing my first creation, the Reebok Kamikaze 2 “Remember the Alamo”.
10+ years later & they’re still Kickin’!! Respect @vtecnician !!
#PromSeason: Recently, I had the honor of photo documenting my niece’s prom send off. I am tremendously proud and grateful to be present for moments like these as you continue to blossom as an intelligent, talented and beautiful young woman while you embark onto the next chapter of your life. Love you to pieces Toni!!!
