Andre Faye the Technician of the Art of Living
PRESENT Mean solar day HISTORY: Andre Wagner'due south Poetic journeying
In commemoration of Black History Month, Hennessy, the earth'south best-selling Cognac, partnered with Brooklyn-based artist and photographer Andre D. Wagner to spotlight how he continues the legacy of Black History through images that capture and illustrate the on-going narrative African Americans express through everyday life. Constantly moving forward, evolving, elevating non only their lives but all life surrounding them in their constant quest to "Never stop. Never settle."
Shot on the streets of New York City, "NEW HISTORY VOL.1" salutes the diversity & beauty found inside the everyday lives of people of color.
MONARCH Magazine defenseless up with Mr. Wagner to hash out his journey through art, music, and beyond.
Monarch Magazine: How did your partnership with Hennessy come up about?
Andre D. Wagner: When Hennessy striking me upwards I was actually honored. They have always supported so many dissimilar artists. The showtime person that came to mind was Nas, because I grew upwardly listening to him and I remember all the ads he shot with Hennessy.
Monarch Magazine: How did your journey into photography begin?
Andre D. Wagner: Well, I e'er say I vicious into information technology; information technology kind of just happened to me. My groundwork is in social work, that'south what I studied as an undergrad, and when I moved to New York City, I moved here to go my MSW. Then through the transition of coming to the city and becoming affected by its energy, I started playing around with the camera, and one affair led to another. I kind of changed my career path. At the same time, beingness born in Omaha, being from the Midwest, and my background in social work influenced my work and sensibilities. I got to a identify where I could utilise my experience, my ideas, and my thinking about social justice and social alter, and put all of it in my photography to create a voice for myself.
Monarch Mag: You seem fairly young to be able to capture what on the surface looks like a fashion that can be likened to a modern-solar day Gordon Parks. Who would y'all say inspires you?
Andre D. Wagner: As a black photographer, the first matter y'all do is look up other black photographers; 1 of the showtime ones that come up is Gordon Parks. I have an former soul in a way, then my work is rooted in the history and tradition of photography which was started by Gordon Parks, and Roy Nicaragua, (another black photographer from Harlem). I took inspiration from photographers that chronicle black life in all kinds of facets and captured that in my ain work.
Monarch Magazine: Do you feel that blackness artists are celebrated enough? Are they given equal opportunity to smoothen as significantly every bit their counterparts?
Andre D. Wagner: When it comes to photography specifically, I don't think so. There's an entire history about black photographers that a lot of people don't even know about. Gordon Parks is a household name, just bated from him, people don't know too much about others. There was a movement, I believe, that started in the sixties, and it was called Kamoinge. It was based in Harlem and created past Roy Nicaragua, the photographer I mentioned earlier. Kamoinge was a black artists' collective, a community of photographers who not but came together, critiqued and shared work with each other, but also figured out how to break into the world of photography and photojournalism. Black artists weren't getting assignments from editors so this was a customs where they were supported and backed by each other. Those kinds of communities are created because in that location is a need for support and people are trying to notice each other in gild to interact and eventually accelerate.
Monarch Magazine: What is your personal perception of dazzler?
Andre D. Wagner: Beauty is multifaceted. One of the things that is most important to me and my piece of work, is not only photographing and showcasing the black experience, just also the nuances and multifaceted ways of it. As a photographer, I discover dazzler in all things. It could exist an empty street with no one on it, or a family walking together with long faces, or even a couple engaging with each other and sharing a beautiful moment. Every bit a photographer, I want all of information technology; I want to capture the whole range of human emotions. I believe that when information technology comes to art especially, there is a lot of beauty in pain. There's also a lot of beauty in people'southward stories. I want all of it captured, the highs and the lows. Dazzler to me is all of that.
Monarch Magazine: Is in that location a specific soundtrack that accompanies your art work? Music that you select to place you lot in a particular mood?
Andre D. Wagner: I love jazz music. I remember about jazz and I listen to jazz all the time. A lot of jazz is voiceless, but instruments and sounds that musicians are bouncing back and along with each other. The artists are able to go off on a whim and fill out the notes and rhythms. These musicians wouldn't be able to do that unless they were masters in their own right. And so they can't hit and go to another tone or follow some other musician if they have not mastered their craft.
The aforementioned holds true for photography and I take a lot of inspiration from that. I become out into the world, and my photographs are not posed or even staged, and in the same way a jazz musician is able to carry a person to a different identify. I have to go out into the world and see these moments happening and capture them as they happen. But I also have to be a master of my craft in social club to create exactly what I desire. Another affair with music and photography, unless I'k photographing and there are words in the picture, the photo on its own is silent. I think a lot about how jazz is able to move people without any spoken words. Information technology's all a vibration and a feeling. And that'southward what I desire to practice with my photography. I want my images to jump off the folio. I want people to feel them and to be moved by them. There are dancing rhythms in my photographs, and so jazz has a huge influence on my piece of work for certain.
Monarch Magazine: What are some other projects that you are currently working on?
Andre D. Wagner: I piece of work with the New York Times a lot. I contribute to a column called The Wait. I usually choose different themes and piece of work on them for almost a month or so. I'thousand only always working. I'one thousand as well creating a new torso of work about New York and my neighborhood (Bushwick, Brooklyn) where I live. I also have other personal projects I'yard trying to get published inside the next year or so. Finally, I work every bit a freelance photographer so I'm always doing all kinds of photography for hire.
Monarch Mag: It's very impactful to hear from an artist during a fourth dimension in which then many powerful social bug have been brought to the forefront. We celebrate you for capturing the blackness feel and for committing to create alter within the globe.
Andre D. Wagner: Every bit an avid supporter of multicultural communities, Hennessy has a long history of supporting the arts and working with diverse cultural icons who push the limits of potential to "Never stop. Never settle." Their decades of back up spans partnerships with the National Urban League, Tuskegee Constitute, Josephine Baker, Nas, besides every bit their early advert in major leading African American publications.
For more information on Hennessy, visit: www.hennessy.com/us/life/ and instagram.com/hennessyus
For more information on Andre D. Wagner, visit: www.andredwagner.com
Source: https://www.monarchmagazine.com/article/andre-wagner/
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