John Edmonds
John Edmonds is an American artist and photographer who first came to public recognition with his intimate portraits of lovers, close friends and strangers.
He is most noted for his highly formalist photographs in which he focuses on the performative gestures and self-fashioning of young black men on the streets of America. Making Black queer collectivity and self-awareness central to his work, Edmonds explores the aesthetic possibilities of intimacy and desire. Incorporating everyday items of adornment and preservation while also juxtaposing these objects with sacred and spiritual sculptures from Central and West Africa, the artist has developed a distinct approach to photography as a critical tool for engaging with personal and collective history, commemorating the past and continually reshaping the present and future. Edmonds’ practice draws upon art historical representations of portraiture and figuration while expanding its roster to include individuals of his own creative community in New York and beyond.
New York, NY
Born 1989, Washington, DC
2016 MFA Yale University, New Haven, CT
2012 BFA Corcoran College of Art & Design, Washington, DC
2011 L’École Parsons à Paris, Paris, FR
www.johnedmonds.studio