Public Project
In Character: “The White Blacks”
Copyright Nikki Johnson 2024
Updated Nov 2022
Topics Art, Black and White, Conceptual, Essays, Media, Portraiture
Summary
Dark Nights of the Soul


When writer / director Melanie Maria Goodreaux commissioned me to photograph the actors of The White Blacks, I knew I wanted to incorporate elements of mystery and film noir. I wanted to shoot the characters awash in either darkness or light.

Only vague hints of a background tug at the characters as their identities change and their familial relationships shift. Colors and shades of grey literally bleed in and out of their skin as each figure stands solitary, peering out of the frame through sidelong glances, or straight into the eyes of the viewer as if daring them to guess who and what they are.

- Nikki Johnson, November 2022
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In Character: “The White Blacks” by Nikki Johnson
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