Creating Exposure inks new photographic initiative Docuseries launches by year's end
Published Sunday, August 30, 2020 7:00 pm
by Ashley Mahoney | The Charlotte Post
Image by: Kevin Bethea
Creating Exposure is taking their “Inked” series to another level.
“Behind the Ink” is a docuseries set to launch by the end of 2020. It expands on the non-profit’s mission to empower youth through creative expression, particularly photography. Mark Pendergrass founded Creating Exposure a decade ago, and several former students have gone on to become instructors in the program.
“Inked” was born when a student Joseph Johnson’s tattoo of a rose on his arm resulted in another student mocking him. Everyone in the class would learn that his mother’s name, Rhodeann “Ann” Johnson” sits beneath the rose. She died from heart disease when Joseph was two years old. That conversation led to the creation of “Inked,” which combines photography with the responsibility of eliminating assumptions about tattoos.
Over the years, students have photographed people from all walks of life—from tattoo artist Dutchess Lattimore to current and former professional athletes like Anthony Morrow, Thomas Davis, and Bilal Duckett to everyday Charlotteans from 18 to 68 years old. After years of shooting photographs, students are now taking the stories beyond a single image. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, they would host photoshoots once or twice a month to capture footage for the docuseries. Two weeks before they were supposed to travel to New York to interview photographers and other tattoo artists, the pandemic shut everything down.
“We started transitioning in November from just photoshoots to interviewing subjects,” Pendergrass said. “We came up with a series of questions, and worked our way through what kind of content we wanted to collect. Students are behind the mic, asking the questions to new subjects, and we’ve brought back some of our archive subjects. We’ve been able to interview four-five people who were part of the first-ever photoshoots.”
When they couldn’t shoot anymore, the photographers still had people who still filled out forms to participate in the interview process. Students and instructors have conducted Zoom interviews throughout COVID-19 to continue working on the project. They changed the approach for the project from a 20- to 30-minute short film to a docuseries.
“We said, ‘this has more legs than that, why not make it a docuseries where we can pull out different topics, or different themes, and we can still do that even through COVID-19 by doing Zoom interviews with people as they sign up,’” Pendergrass said. “Now we’re getting people signing up from across the country.”
Every participant gets a high-quality image that may be used in the docuseries or the coffee table book, which will be published as a fundraiser for the program.
“That’s going to be a series of images, both archived and new,” Pendergrass said. “There are several components of the project that still enable us to connect with people, and the students get to interview people. We’re still trying to work through COVID-19 and keep the program going for the kids.”
To watch the “Behind the Ink” trailer:
https://youtu.be/TOAexHK3fxo
For more information:
www.creatingexposure.com