Photographer David Clifton-Strawn’s new ebook brings Atlanta arts group into focus

After greater than twenty years away from the lens, Atlanta photographer David Clifton-Strawn picked up a digital camera once more — to not make artwork however to make sense of himself. He’d initially stopped photographing after shedding his associate within the AIDS disaster and, later, his husband to continual obstructive pulmonary illness.

As a part of his restoration, a therapist advised journaling, however, as Clifton-Strawn explains, “I really hate writing.” So he reached for a digital camera as a substitute. 

“One night, I just started taking photographs of myself, just trying to figure out who I was again, trying to become reacquainted with my own image and to create a new sense of self.” 

From there, he started photographing pals. After remarrying and shifting again to the town with Billy Clifton, he felt a robust pull to reconnect with the artwork group he’d left behind. 

That impulse ultimately grew into After a Long Intermission: Portraits from Atlanta’s Creative Community, a brand new ebook of 100 portraits revealed with assist from the town of Atlanta. The mission started in 2019 as a approach for Clifton-Strawn to re-establish contact with different artists “after a long intermission.” It rapidly expanded right into a sweeping file of Atlanta’s inventive ecosystem.

The completed ebook displays the breadth of the town’s artwork scene. It consists of distinguished visible artists similar to Michi Meko, Shanequa Gay and Kevin Cole, in addition to a wealthy mixture of creatives from different disciplines, together with dancers, drag artists, writers, burlesque performers and actors. The portraits are set alongside figures who maintain the town’s arts ecosystem: gallerists Alan Avery, Susan Bridges and Yu-Kai Lin; longtime Executive Director of the town of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs Camille Love; and critic and ArtsATL cofounder Catherine Fox, whose portrait was not too long ago acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia.

“The privilege of getting to sit with someone, one-on-one, is something I cherish,” Clifton-Strawn says. “I feel grateful to have had these encounters and the ability to document them all with a portrait.”

One of essentially the most hanging photos is the duvet portrait of High Museum curator Michael Rooks in a swimsuit, watering the backyard at Susan Bridges’ Whitespace Gallery. “Michael mentioned that when he wants to escape the business of the High, he’ll go over to Susan’s garden,” Clifton-Strawn says. “Sometimes, if he notices it needs watering, he’ll water it for her. So I asked him to pose there, in a suit, holding a hose. It was perfect.”

Clifton-Strawn’s method to portraiture is all the time deeply conversational. Sessions usually start with an hour or extra of dialog earlier than he even picks up the digital camera, and most of the images had been taken as discussions continued. “For me, the best pose is no pose,” he says. “I want to capture people as naturally as possible. My favorite thing is when friends see a picture and say, ‘Oh my God, he captured you perfectly. This is so you.’ Then I know I’ve done my job.”

What emerges throughout the pages isn’t only a set of particular person portraits however a portrait of a group. “The thing that struck me was the diversity of artists we have here,” he says. “But more than that, the sense of community is pretty amazing. The way people show up for each other’s openings, the group shows, the collaborations. And there’s a real commitment to speaking directly to important social issues.”

The publication of After a Long Intermission may appear to be a pure endpoint for the mission, however Clifton-Strawn says he’s nonetheless making new portraits. He has his eye on each rising artists and established figures who’ve helped form Atlanta’s establishments. If the a long time away from artwork had been an “intermission,” his second act doubles as a portrait of Atlanta itself — a metropolis captured within the second it welcomed him again.

Where & When:

After a Long Intermission: Portraits from Atlanta’s Creative Community shall be out there beginning September 25 on the Atlanta Art Fair (Alan Avery Art Company sales space), at davidcliftonstrawn.com and thru Atlanta Photography Group.
There shall be a signing on September 27 on the Alan Avery Art Company sales space from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

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Andrew Alexander is an Atlanta-based author.