On Saturday I decided to take a troll through Prospect Heights to check out some of the photos that my friend Richard Louissaint currently has on display at Harriet's Alter Ego and The Brooklyn Museum.  

Rich has two photos featured in Harriet Alter Ego's Brooklyn All Day exhibit.  One photo was taken on the opening day of the Brooklyn flea and features Rich and author Kenji Jasper staring into a line of mirrors that are normally on sale at The Flea.  As with most self-portraits there's a bit of introspection embedded in this photograph.  A viewer reading this photograph might interpret it as a rendering of these two men looking at themselves, their relationship, and the world around them--going a deep further--two men on the cusp of deciding whether or not to flea.  

The second photo that Rich has up is a shot taken during last year's Afro-Punk Festival.  It's a portrait of a lone man dancing in the rain.  Rich's muse in this shot is at one rigid and electric.  Already awaken himself, he's like a lightning rod that has found its footing on the dance floor, aka, the BK pavement.  

Walking over to the Brooklyn Museum, one spies another of Rich's photos in Click, the crowd curated exhibit.  His portrait in this installation is of two young boys dancing.  They are in mid-air, an act suggestive of the boundless possibilities of youth.  A period where young boys fortunate enough to receive ample support will take heed of the creed "Yes We Can," and make their own valiant attempts at touching the sky.  Rich deftly captures the brilliant smiles on these boys faces who are reveling in the attention being heaped upon them by the crowd, and Rich's lens.  Reading this photo one sees that Rich has not simply captured them in mid-move but amid possibility.

Both exhibits will be down by mid-August, so I would recommend making your way to Harriet's Alter Ego and The Brooklyn Museum to check out Rich's work, as well as the contributions of other photographers to these two fine installations.  

 Kindred Cool is a jazz-based photography project created by Laylah Amatullah Barrayn. This series of portraits uses the friendship of Albert Murray, Ralph Ellison and Romare Bearden as inspiration to document the diversity of the contemporary jazz society.  

Kindred Cools opens Sunday August 3rd at MOCADA.  

Check out this recent Hello Babar entry for a writing and photography collaboration by my friends JB and Haitian Rich where JB uses Rich's photographs to complement her interview with the ban Heavy.

Mon frere Rich posted this entry from the recent Haiti Optimiste art gathering