STONEYHILL describes themselves as “a spiritually based design practice that studies, researches and applies a set of ancient healing techniques, in hopes of achieving a harmonious relationship between design, the human race, the divine, science and our mother Gaia.” While reading their manifesto it felt like taking in a breath of fresh air, their sentiments and approach to how they project onto the material world I heavily resonated with. I feel as humans and as a society we have a duty to to fulfill our purpose during this experience we call life. Nature fulfills its purpose by being, humans on the other hand have intellect and awareness of self so our destiny in many ways lies in our hands. This ability of choice is where I believe the concepts of heaven and hell, yin and yang, good and bad etc, come from. As a society in order to determine our purpose I feel that we have to look at what has come before us and what provides for us, which is nature. Nature is where the key to life’s codes lies. By aligning your purpose with nature you are working and living for a cause that is greater than one’s self. As an artist I formerly approached my purpose by trying to see what I could do for one’s self rather than what eye could do for society and for our collective experience. Through the realization that Earth is one big (organ)ization, mothership, celestial body,(whatever you want to call it) and we are all connected from the stars to the atoms I started looking at things from a wholesome perspective rather than individualistic, for instance with the knowledge that we are all connected and our purpose is bigger than us doing minimal things like replacing Is with eye, which to me to represents we only see what we know, shows that eye am aware of self but know my origins / essence is greater than self. The conception of STONEYHILL represents what society needs not wants, it asks us to reflect analyze and direct our energy towards a greater purpose as philosophers, artists, farmers, workers, entertainers, and all in all as humans. To visit STONEYHILL click platform. One Love.
Allen Golder is a multi disciplinary artist from Maryland, his work often portrays a philosophical stance on the question, “what does it mean to be black in America?” His recent installation at Dupont Underground back in February showcased the political, environmental, and systematic approach that’s taken in our society from childhood to adulthood. To learn more about Golder visit his recent interview with Dia Tribe and visit his website to view his latest collection.
During 2020 GreyYears became my favorite photographer. I was never huge on black & white photography until GreyYears. I learned a lot through GreyYears’ use of the medium, the two major lessons being subject matter and emotion. Your subject matter is easy to portray when in color, but taking that factor away forces you to look at things differently. When shooting black and white my main focus is the architecture of my subject matter which is something I barely pay attention to when shooting in color and through this my eyes gain an appreciation for the geometry of the world around me.
When a photograph evokes emotion in the viewer the photographers job has been done. I think the thing that separates great photographers from the rest is when your pictures have their own feel to them, when the viewer wants to hop in the picture and walk around and see what made the picture what it is. Black & white is already a feel on its own but what I think GreyYears is able to do is put his pictures in a time period of their own, giving off a modern yet ancient feel almost as if they’re in their own dimension.
These series of pictures were my second time shooting black & white and I went in with the intent of mimicking Greyears trying to see what he sees and bringing out the qualities of his work that I think make it what it is. During the developing process of the film there was some mishaps which made the pictures not come out as “clean” as they usually would be, in turn the pictures actually ended up giving off more of the GreyYears affect and aligning with the wabi sabi approach which is one of the philosophies I gravitated to early on in my photography.
GreyYears Website
Pictures developed @ Ayathma’s film store
