Elonte Davis captures intimate portraits of Black youth in first solo show
‘This Is Where I’m At and this is what I’m doing’ runs at the Carr Center until Sept. 2
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Normalize Black joy in Detroit: young girls smiling in their heart-shaped cornrows, teenagers headed to a dance decked out in Cartier glasses with fresh curls and long eyelashes popping.
Emerging photographer Elonte Davis captures these moments that may seem mundane in ways that make everyday Black Detroit life look like a high fashion magazine spread.
His first solo exhibit This Is Where I’m At and this is what I’m doing at the Carr Center features 50 candid images Davis took of Black youth. The work was commissioned by Steed Society Art and organized by Irwin House Gallery.
Davis, a born-and-raised Eastsider, first picked up the camera as a student at Michigan Technological University. He never finished his degree at MTU, but he continued to take photos, drawn to the inner-city landscape that he knows firsthand and the young people who flourish there.
His photos show moments of Black fatherhood, kinship, and coming-of-age moments in private and public spaces. A little boy flaunts his bowtie and suspenders as a group of his suit-and-tie-clad elders dance and pose behind him. They have his back no matter what.
A toddler sits in the backseat of a car with stacks of cash and a puppy on his lap. He is likely unaware of what the racks mean. Is it drug money his parents got from gangbanging? Maybe. Does it make this young child any less innocent? Any less human? No.
In order for young Black kids to know their worth, as Davis pointedly titles the photo of young prom goers, they have to see themselves. To be told that growing up in the hood, playing with a water hose in the backyard on a hot day, popping a wheelie in a corner store parking lot after dark, and hooping in a neighborhood basketball court aren’t “ghetto.” They’re simply how we live and ways that we find moments of happiness in urban life.
This is Where I’m At and this is what I’m doing is a traveling show with plans to exhibit across urban areas like Chicago later this fall and New York for Black History Month in 2024. Elonte will do a two-to-four-week residency in these cities before each exhibit to document local youth in each location.
“Together, we hope that Davis’ unfiltered photographic eye will engender empathy and appreciation between Greater Detroit’s diverse populations while serving as a historical record of life in the city for many Detroiters and turning an eye towards Black futures across the globe,” Irwin House Gallery Director, Misha McGlown said in a statement.
Davis started exhibiting his photography around Detroit in 2021. His work has been featured at the Detroit Historical Museum, Irwin House Gallery, Canfield Consortium, Riverside Detroit, Dearborn’s ImageWorks, and with Composing Detroit. He has shot photos for the Motown Museum, Detroit Deltas, and Rolling Out Magazine.
Where to see his work: This is Where I’m At and this is what I’m doing is presented in partnership with Irwin House Gallery and is on view until Sept. 2 at the Carr Center; 15 E. Kirby St., Detroit.
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