"...you can bring revolution into your art, but you can't make a revolution with art. The revolution must come by political means. But perhaps the music, if is beautiful enough, can help people begin to change a little bit - begin to change in their consciousness so that they will be ready to move in other ways, political ways. Perhaps."
- Gato Barbieri
When I retired in July 2020, I decided to seriously learn photography. I was first attracted to this art form during my teenage years in the 1960s viewing images of the civil rights movement and life in urban Black communities. I felt the power of documenting the lives of ordinary people and the extraordinary steps they took to change their lives. Today, While I will make photographs that reflects my observations of Life, I want to develop projects in partnership with community-based organizations to capture the lives of the people they serve and support their efforts to change the world. I know the impact of my photography will always be secondary relative to the difficult tasks of building organizations and movements. but I deeply believe in the above quote from one of my favorite jazz artists, the Argentine saxophonist, Gato Barbieri, on the relationship between art, politics and social change. Together we can build the elusive Beloved Community.
