From the Artist:
These selections are part of a life-long project titled [sur]passing. It is based on a series of a continuum of larger than life size color portraits that probe the impact skin pigmentation plays on black identity and consciousness. Primarily due to the melanin count of their skin, light and dark-skinned blacks opportunities can differ enormously ranging from overt favoritism to extreme alienation.
Kobena Mercer coins this process as a "pigmentocracy" - based on skin-tone. This scandalous and often heart wrenching story line dates back to colonial America and it clearly perseveres today.
In [sur]passing the models are shot with a large format camera from towering urban vantage points, highlighting the re-generation of a new inner-city culture, they become divine, larger than the purposely out of focus buildings of the London, New York and South African skylines, in contrast to the sharp, crisp rendering of each subject. The subjects assertively return the gaze, without being confrontational and by hanging the four-foot by five-foot photographs above eye level, the viewer has no choice but to "look up" to these people posed as if characters from a modern Shakespeare melodrama. Currently, this series aims to reach the next level, as it will include such nobility as Deborah Willis, Henry Louise Gates (both confirmed), Cornel West, and traveling to every port which African slaves were dispensed.
So, as the title [sur]passing suggests, these portraits represent a "new generation" - one that is above and beyond "passing". We represent a fresh pride and strength; where ambiguity and blurred borders create an individuality that elevates consciousness and advances a plethora of complex and positive imagery of [black] people in the Diaspora and all over the world.