Defying narratives of suffering, Kennedi Carter’s powerful images center Black joy
Document Journal
Text by: Des Magness
Photography by: Kennedi Carter
The 21-year-old photographer on leaving art school, combatting the erasure of Black cowboys, and why she’s not moving to New York or LA
Focused on tenderness and gentle beauty, 21-year-old photographer Kennedi Carter captures Black American narratives with a fresh and nuanced voice. Carter’s intimate narrative projects, such as Ridin’ Sucka Free and Soon As I Get Home, dive into topics ranging from Black horsemen to love stories to, recently, her own family in North Carolina. Carter’s artistic aim is, primarily, to make her viewer feel good—she describes her work as “aim[ing] to reinvent notions of creativity and confidence in the realm of Blackness.”
Born in Dallas, Carter now lives and works in Durham, North Carolina, a place that she feels often grounds her work. Her image-making describes the American South in new terms, often creating rich and textured spaces of power for her subjects. It is easy to be drawn into the realm Carter has created; the gaze of her subjects is often confidently unwavering, and these images blend contemporary reality and historical reference into one visually striking moment.
Des Magness spoke with Carter about the realities of isolation as an artist, leaving art school (for now), the grounding qualities of working in a smaller city, and what it means to be creating such powerful images of Black American life in the South.
Des Magness: When did you start taking photographs? Tell me a little about finding your voice in your work.
Kennedi Carter: I started in high school. It was about three, four years ago. I took a photography class, and I enjoyed it a lot. I thought it was going to be something I could cruise through, but my teacher was more adamant about putting in effort, and I ended up liking it a lot. It was something that I stuck with. I was in college for two years, and I took some photography courses there which I enjoyed for itself, but I ended up moving onto a different path. It was what it was—I took time away from school, started focusing on broadening my portfolio and making work that I care about.
Courtesy of: Document Journal
