Artist based in Los Angeles, CA
Jamil G Baldwin, Portrait of the Artist, Photo by Rey Robles
Tell us about yourself, what's your background?
The truth is, I hesitate to respond because my life has taken so many twists and turns before bringing me to this point. It's hard to know where to begin, and getting to know someone takes time—time we don’t always have in these settings.
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Famliy Photo Album or when we die our portraits speak to our living descendants detail, 4" x 6" C-Prints
With that in mind, I suppose the background that feels like it may give any context to me is that first and foremost I am a son and a brother, an uncle, and a friend to many more than just my blood relatives. And for what it’s worth, I lived in six or seven places before graduating high school. And moved as many times since. On top of that, I’ve held just as many positions in different fields before falling into the practice of making images. Folks are often surprised that I have a business degree from the same place that produced Elon Musk, Donald Trump, John Legend, and Luigi Mangione.
In my mind, I’ve only just started making images; it’s been maybe seven years now, I think. But the seed was planted nearly two decades ago by Naima Green while I was in undergrad. And eventually the medium found me again after I parted ways with my career in the music industry. And in a lot of ways, after that moment, she has become my mentor.
For Olivia “Olee” Lee, 20 x 24 Silver gelatin
I don’t know that there was a moment that marked this shift, but I knew that working corporate jobs wasn’t fulfilling. And I’ll spare you a long-winded story, but at some point writing became all consuming. And after a false start in a career writing for TV & Film where I felt misunderstood by execs and studios, I thought maybe the friction lied in the fact that my writing needed to be sharper and more pointed.
Famliy Photo Album or when we die our portraits speak to our living descendants detail
So I began to lean into poetry to tighten my language. Writing became the daily practice. And as it became more laborious, I needed something more casual to take a break. Photography became that—though I would say that has reversed these days. And I was very much encouraged those early days by friends like Joshua Bennett, Abdi Farah, Dwayne LeBlanc, Justen LeRoy, and Tyler Benard—they were gassing me for real for real. I think we all need a little bit of that!
I think the biggest leap came after my partner, Arima Ederra, pushed me to take classes and workshops with some incredible folks like Dave Alekhuogie, Justine Kurland, Diana Markosian, Alejandro Sanchez, and Steve Moulton. Thanks to all of them, photography went from a way to give shape to my words to a proper extension of my consciousness.
For Jonathan “Johnny Hash” Sandoval-Aleman, 20 x 24 Silver gelatin
“I began to lean into poetry to tighten my language. Writing became the daily practice. And as it became more laborious, I needed something more casual to take a break. Photography became that—though I would say that has reversed these days."
"Tenacity" series on view at "Fire and Thunder", Pioneeer Works, NY, Photo Credit: Garrett Carroll
What are you currently working on and where did the inspiration for it come from?
I’ll start with the second part of the question to give myself time to think about the first. Inspiration is absolutely from something outside of myself. I believe it’ll tap any number of us at the same time. And if you’re equipped to respond, then great. But it may be that it’s not yours to see out, you might not be ready. Even more, it’s never guaranteed to visit you again. So anytime an idea comes, and I have the ability to give it shape, I give thanks.
Tenacity V, 20 x 24 Silver gelatin left in water
And maybe I suppose that’s why I’m avoidant of “currently.” I’m still playing within the first idea I had seven years ago: using images to give shape to the words I write concerning the people and places I care about. It just somehow keeps getting both more narrow and more expansive. The “what” is as malleable as my heart, but it’s centered around where I find myself geographically, and those things that concern us in these places. The “how” has been a bit more dynamic, jumping between indexical and abstract forms, but maintaining some legibility still.
I’m still challenged by the prompt of imagining ways images can operate like Black language; a charge to make images more active than passive. Like Black language, I want images to require a second person or an audience to be fully understood. And to that end how images are presented can change the meaning entirely.
Tenacity I, 20 x 24 Silver gelatin left in water
Innovation does not only happen in the field of technology — it occurs everyday in a creative practice. What do you do for inspiration?
I don’t think there’s anything anyone can do for inspiration. It will find you if it’s meant to. But at the very least, it’s why I stay in practice with reading and writing, with image making, and any other mediums that pique my interest. If I stay in practice, I’m ready for it, in the event it finds me. And if never visits me again, I very much find peace and many life lessons within the discipline.
(Left) Tenacity WIP before adding water to images (Right) reviewing the first attempt to print "the continuum of something that no longer exists” Photo by Salim Green
Describe your practice and process. Where do ideas start for you? In the studio or being in the world?
True! My practice is reading essays, the news, literature, poetry and studying how things are made—how a sentence was thrown together, how an emotion was successfully evoked. But above all, my practice involves listening. Jotting down turns of phrases, errant comments or observations. And I’ll revisit these notes and these writings and use them as prompts for image making. What does “I know that’s right!” look like? Or can an image be the call or the response for “God is good…[pauses]” and “All the time…[pauses]”?
Forgive me, that’s a long way of saying the studio is in the world, they are one in the same. But maybe the studio is a repository where I can synthesize, stack, and meditate on whatever I parse out of my daily life.
Studio view
How do you make your work, does it start with a sketch?
How do I make my work? Slowly. Considered. Methodically. I don’t know if I have a style; I’d maybe defer to others and ask if there’s a through-line they see. I just let the idea demand how something should ultimately come together; listening and sitting and ruminating is about 95% of my practice. When the idea for something does come, I can see it clearly as day in my mind. And it lingers there until it is materialized, naturally it shifts and morphs along the way.
(Left) Install at Webber Gallery, Los Angeles, 2023 (Right) Detail of What's Black and Blue Mean to You
Many artists live by their routines, what does that look like for you?
Most people who visit my studio will see me pacing in circles burning itan a few times a day, or sweeping and mopping and reorganizing. The space is meditative and full of slow routines. It’s patient. As a vessel, I want to have the room to receive.
I'm the nine-to-fiver artist. I walk to the studio around 10 in the morning after a good breakfast and some reading. And I leave around 5PM to go make dinner. I eat on a schedule and sleep on one, with no alarms. I look at it like this: show up for your body and spirit and your mind, above anything else. Be present in conversation. Be available for friends and family. The work will find you; it always does. So be good to yourself so you can sustain in the marathon that is life.
Detail of into the into, 11" x 14" roofing tar, wood, mordançage print
Who are your biggest influences?
Biggest?! Shit–can I say that? Look, that iis so hard. I’m a student. I’m influenced by EVERYthing! I don’t exist out of context. Every history. Every sentence I read. Every conversation has an influence on me.
I mean I have my north stars, and I can rattle them off easily. Roy DeCarava, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jackie Castillo, Ben Caldwell, Polo Silk, Lauren Halsey, Noah Purify, Haile Gerima, Zeinabu irene Davis, Christopher Gilbert, Terrance Hayes, bell hooks, June Jordan, Katherine Dunham, do you want me to keep going? The list is long. And those aren’t even necessarily my faves as much as there’s so much to learn from each of them. Each of them have given language to what I’m thinking through, or made a clearing in the woods where I’d like to explore, or provided a foundation for my ideas to stand on. We can do this all day though if you’d like!
For Jabari Benton, 20 x 24 Silver gelatin
Are there books or films that are an important source of inspiration?
Sheesh. Films. I'll put it like this. The ethos of the LA Rebellion is my guiding light, they're working in ways I believe most fillmakers should. Not to mention what Pedro Costa, Dwayne LeBlanc, and RaMelll Ross are doing, too.
As far as books, we don't have the room. But two things I never leave home without is Christopher Gilbert's "Turning into Dwelling" and Toni Morrison's "Playing in the Dark."
(Left) Self portrait (Right) by Salim Green
What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
My godfather is fulll of sayings. Maybe I’ll put them into a small manifesto—silly things like ‘every rabbit to their habit.’ But something he instilled in me since I was a teenager and through the years is: “learn, learn, learn.”
What is the best advice you would give to other artists?
Artists?! I’m of the opinion all of us are artists whether you explicitly identify as one; we can get very creative within our fields of interest or expertise. The way a sales person talks. The way an engineer thinks. Which is to say we’re all artists.
"Tenacity" series on view at "Fire and Thunder", Pioneeer Works, NY, Photo Credit: Garrett Carroll
And so I’d say remember that we’re inheriting this earth after a long line of incredible folks; and as stewards of this planet and of the younger generations, it benefits you to recognize it’s about the “we,” and not about the “me.” Know your history. Be curious about why things are the way they are, because it wasn’t always so, and won’t always be. And just because you find yourself in a negative situation, doesn’t mean there aren’t positive lessons. Above all, find ways to care for your neighbors, literally, and poetically speaking.
Stay up to date with Jamil G Baldwin
Website jamilbaldwin.com
Instagram @juh_mile