This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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About the PhotographerClifford Prince King is an artist living and working in New York and Los Angeles. King documents his intimate relationships in traditional, everyday settings that speak on his experiences as a queer black man. Public collections holding his work include the Hammer Museum, Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Arts, ICA Miami, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and Studio Museum in Harlem. Publications carrying King’s images as commissioned work and features include Apartamento, Aperture, BUTT, Cultured, The CUT, Dazed, Fantastic Man, i-D, Interview, T Magazine, The New York Times, Vice, Vogue, and The Wall Street Journal. His work was recently seen in the exhibition Love Songs: Photography and Intimacy at the International Center of Photography (June 1 – September 11, 2023). |
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Truth in Photography: What propels your photography? What makes you want to make photographs?
Clifford Prince King: A lot of it comes from wanting connection between people and spaces. I'm very interested in how people move and mannerisms and stances. I'm very in tune with my environment. Sunlight is a very important aspect of my work and informs a lot about how I see places and people. Mostly my desire to connect with people: people of color, black people, queer people. Because when you're shooting someone's portrait or you're in a shared space, you're getting to know someone on a different level. It's hard to pinpoint what that is, but there's this relaxation and comfort that I find when I'm in that space with an individual or a group of people. It all stems from there. Photography is my vessel to connect with others. Photography is my way of finding information about myself and other people within my community. I really started doing photography to connect with people and to find myself and to make friends within my community, within Los Angeles and New York.
Clifford Prince King: A lot of it comes from wanting connection between people and spaces. I'm very interested in how people move and mannerisms and stances. I'm very in tune with my environment. Sunlight is a very important aspect of my work and informs a lot about how I see places and people. Mostly my desire to connect with people: people of color, black people, queer people. Because when you're shooting someone's portrait or you're in a shared space, you're getting to know someone on a different level. It's hard to pinpoint what that is, but there's this relaxation and comfort that I find when I'm in that space with an individual or a group of people. It all stems from there. Photography is my vessel to connect with others. Photography is my way of finding information about myself and other people within my community. I really started doing photography to connect with people and to find myself and to make friends within my community, within Los Angeles and New York.
TiP: What is your approach to photography? How do you decide which people and situations to photograph?
King: When I think about photographs and image making, I start off with a sort of daydream, almost like a still from a film, and I'm casting it in my mind. I'm either sourcing my friends or maybe someone that I've seen on the internet, or I've met out at a party, or in a public setting. Then within my photography, I'm creating this tableau or scene, and I’m just puzzling it together. It doesn't have to be that complicated, sometimes I want to take someone's portrait in hopes of having this meeting and conversation and getting to know each other, to give myself that practice in a social setting.
TiP: In terms of images that are in your show, how do you describe an image without being able to see it?
King: For my photographs, I would describe them as film stills. I grew up loving film and watched a lot of movies during the summer because it was so hot outside in Arizona. I would describe my photographs as clips from a larger motion picture, just like snippets, because you can see that there's something that's happened before the image is taken and there's a light to be moved after the photo is taken. You're just really getting that one second and that's the still. I try to make photographs with the idea that there's much more happening besides what you see, and that will continue to happen after. For me, it's important for my work to have a really heavy story to follow and for the viewer to think about what these people are to each other, what the spaces are for those people. I think it's important for the viewer to create their own narrative surrounding what they see. I hope it takes on various different storylines in order for the viewer to see themselves within that image in any way.
King: When I think about photographs and image making, I start off with a sort of daydream, almost like a still from a film, and I'm casting it in my mind. I'm either sourcing my friends or maybe someone that I've seen on the internet, or I've met out at a party, or in a public setting. Then within my photography, I'm creating this tableau or scene, and I’m just puzzling it together. It doesn't have to be that complicated, sometimes I want to take someone's portrait in hopes of having this meeting and conversation and getting to know each other, to give myself that practice in a social setting.
TiP: In terms of images that are in your show, how do you describe an image without being able to see it?
King: For my photographs, I would describe them as film stills. I grew up loving film and watched a lot of movies during the summer because it was so hot outside in Arizona. I would describe my photographs as clips from a larger motion picture, just like snippets, because you can see that there's something that's happened before the image is taken and there's a light to be moved after the photo is taken. You're just really getting that one second and that's the still. I try to make photographs with the idea that there's much more happening besides what you see, and that will continue to happen after. For me, it's important for my work to have a really heavy story to follow and for the viewer to think about what these people are to each other, what the spaces are for those people. I think it's important for the viewer to create their own narrative surrounding what they see. I hope it takes on various different storylines in order for the viewer to see themselves within that image in any way.
TiP: How did you become a photographer?
King: My photography practice just slowly became what was my normal. I grew up with disposable cameras and Polaroids, and photography really was just my way of breaking out of my shyness and having to approach people who I thought had this light to them that I wanted to investigate. Over the years photography has become my way of self-expression. I feel as a photographer, when you take a certain image, whether it's a fleeting moment or a portrait of someone that you've been watching over the span of a day or week, once that photo is taken, there's almost this release or this dopamine rush. You've had this idea of what you wanted to capture for quite some time, and once you've fulfilled that, there's this joy and there's just a very successful feeling.
TiP: What is truth in photography?
King: Within photography, are we looking for the truth or are we seeking a way to deny the truth or to bend it or to create a fantasy with photography? Sometimes people seek the truth within photos, but sometimes people seek escape and fantasy within photos.
TiP: How can a photograph express sexuality?
King: A photograph can express sexuality based on the point of view of the photographer if the photographer's eye is focusing on a specific sitter or person. Within my work, it revolves around interior spaces. There's bare interior and skin. I feel like a lot of my work comes off as sexual. I would hope that within my work I'm expressing a liberation and freedom, just to exist within one’s skin and within the embraces of other queer Black people. People not within that world might see the work as sexual.
King: My photography practice just slowly became what was my normal. I grew up with disposable cameras and Polaroids, and photography really was just my way of breaking out of my shyness and having to approach people who I thought had this light to them that I wanted to investigate. Over the years photography has become my way of self-expression. I feel as a photographer, when you take a certain image, whether it's a fleeting moment or a portrait of someone that you've been watching over the span of a day or week, once that photo is taken, there's almost this release or this dopamine rush. You've had this idea of what you wanted to capture for quite some time, and once you've fulfilled that, there's this joy and there's just a very successful feeling.
TiP: What is truth in photography?
King: Within photography, are we looking for the truth or are we seeking a way to deny the truth or to bend it or to create a fantasy with photography? Sometimes people seek the truth within photos, but sometimes people seek escape and fantasy within photos.
TiP: How can a photograph express sexuality?
King: A photograph can express sexuality based on the point of view of the photographer if the photographer's eye is focusing on a specific sitter or person. Within my work, it revolves around interior spaces. There's bare interior and skin. I feel like a lot of my work comes off as sexual. I would hope that within my work I'm expressing a liberation and freedom, just to exist within one’s skin and within the embraces of other queer Black people. People not within that world might see the work as sexual.
TiP: How do you compose photos of couples or more than two people? Are you asking your subject to perform for you, or is it an interaction where what they are doing is a result of you interacting?
King: With my photographs, I start off with this daydream or this image that I have maybe seen elsewhere, and I kind of categorize that moment and keep it in this file in my mind. If I don't capture it in real time, I'll go back with friends and reenact it. I like to have my sitters reenact a visual that I've seen elsewhere in a safer, more controlled environment. I will have my camera set up. There is maybe one shot that is definite, but I like to leave room for exploration. And oftentimes within a scenario that I'm photographing I'll just keep shooting while not shooting, because I feel the best image comes from when people aren't aware the photo is being taken. The in-between moments where it's like, okay, you’re ready to start, but then you have to change the film. Then you generally would make some sort of announcement that you're ready to start again. But you could just start and there's a different kind of movement and energy when you're anticipating a shutter click versus when you're just in the moment.
TiP: Are you shooting film? What kind of camera do you use?
King: I shoot on a Canon AE-1 35 millimeter, mostly. I like simple point and shoots as well, but I've used the AE-1 on mostly everything I've seen online in my portfolio.
TiP: Talk about your approach.
King: A lot of my work could be seen as a series of daily Black queer life. But I don't really consider myself to be incredibly series based because I feel it can be a little limiting, and it also just depends on the kind of narrative I want to share. I suppose I did do one series called Acts of Service, which kind of stems off of Southern hospitality and service, as in waitresses, waiters, butlers, the help. I put my own twist on it with gay Black men. I guess the series that I do come up with end up being larger versions of something that I had done in the past that wasn't as realized that I make a collection of.
King: With my photographs, I start off with this daydream or this image that I have maybe seen elsewhere, and I kind of categorize that moment and keep it in this file in my mind. If I don't capture it in real time, I'll go back with friends and reenact it. I like to have my sitters reenact a visual that I've seen elsewhere in a safer, more controlled environment. I will have my camera set up. There is maybe one shot that is definite, but I like to leave room for exploration. And oftentimes within a scenario that I'm photographing I'll just keep shooting while not shooting, because I feel the best image comes from when people aren't aware the photo is being taken. The in-between moments where it's like, okay, you’re ready to start, but then you have to change the film. Then you generally would make some sort of announcement that you're ready to start again. But you could just start and there's a different kind of movement and energy when you're anticipating a shutter click versus when you're just in the moment.
TiP: Are you shooting film? What kind of camera do you use?
King: I shoot on a Canon AE-1 35 millimeter, mostly. I like simple point and shoots as well, but I've used the AE-1 on mostly everything I've seen online in my portfolio.
TiP: Talk about your approach.
King: A lot of my work could be seen as a series of daily Black queer life. But I don't really consider myself to be incredibly series based because I feel it can be a little limiting, and it also just depends on the kind of narrative I want to share. I suppose I did do one series called Acts of Service, which kind of stems off of Southern hospitality and service, as in waitresses, waiters, butlers, the help. I put my own twist on it with gay Black men. I guess the series that I do come up with end up being larger versions of something that I had done in the past that wasn't as realized that I make a collection of.
TiP: When you're making photographs, do you think about what they mean or is it purely visual?
King: When I make photographs, I think about what they might mean after I've taken them. For the most part, the imagery that you see is something that I've seen happen or have visualized or I want to share that feeling that I've had during that setup time. There's this image of two black men wiping themselves off after having sex or some sort of interaction. That was something that I had been included in, and I saw myself outside of that and thought it would be a really beautiful photo. When you see it, it could just be that: cleaning up. But also, there is a certain silence within that time that I feel is either a celebration, or a defeat, or whatever that interaction provided within that silence of wiping off or preparing to leave or preparing to stay. There's just that unknown moment that I wanted to bring in.
TiP: What do you strive to do through the work you're doing with your community?
King: The work that I'm doing and have done for the last four or five years is just creating an archive of selfhood and community that I find throughout my life. Growing up, I didn't really see these images or references to this sort of “alternative” lifestyle. There was nothing to really base, or to reference, what I could possibly become as an adult. I would hope that my work would serve as a way to see that there are possibilities to having beauty within a life of your choosing. One of the most important things when I take photographs is that I want there to be a sense of timelessness and things that might give away the year that the photo was taken, I tried to either make it an intentional piece that is giving the time away or just remove it so that the photos could be maybe taken in the eighties or the nineties or just give it a universal feeling because these stories and these people have existed long before I have, but I don't see evidence of that unless I'm researching. But as someone who wasn't in the academic landscape or didn't do much studying about photography or film, I kind of just made my own.
King: When I make photographs, I think about what they might mean after I've taken them. For the most part, the imagery that you see is something that I've seen happen or have visualized or I want to share that feeling that I've had during that setup time. There's this image of two black men wiping themselves off after having sex or some sort of interaction. That was something that I had been included in, and I saw myself outside of that and thought it would be a really beautiful photo. When you see it, it could just be that: cleaning up. But also, there is a certain silence within that time that I feel is either a celebration, or a defeat, or whatever that interaction provided within that silence of wiping off or preparing to leave or preparing to stay. There's just that unknown moment that I wanted to bring in.
TiP: What do you strive to do through the work you're doing with your community?
King: The work that I'm doing and have done for the last four or five years is just creating an archive of selfhood and community that I find throughout my life. Growing up, I didn't really see these images or references to this sort of “alternative” lifestyle. There was nothing to really base, or to reference, what I could possibly become as an adult. I would hope that my work would serve as a way to see that there are possibilities to having beauty within a life of your choosing. One of the most important things when I take photographs is that I want there to be a sense of timelessness and things that might give away the year that the photo was taken, I tried to either make it an intentional piece that is giving the time away or just remove it so that the photos could be maybe taken in the eighties or the nineties or just give it a universal feeling because these stories and these people have existed long before I have, but I don't see evidence of that unless I'm researching. But as someone who wasn't in the academic landscape or didn't do much studying about photography or film, I kind of just made my own.
TiP: In terms of your work, your community and it being a misunderstood and sometimes demonized community, it would seem to me that what you're bringing forward is that you're trying to present some truth about that community.
King: Having agency over my own story and the story of others is really important. But that's the work I do and that other queer Black photographers are doing. What any artist should be doing is telling their own narratives and speaking from within without all this crossfire with people who don't have the experience and are projecting their ideas.
TiP: What you're saying is that you want to have agency over the way in which you're represented and presented to the world. It seems to me that for you, that's the truth you're pursuing. Could you talk about that?
King: Well, when you’re talking about truth within the storytelling and telling your narrative, it's important to be universal because there are lots of components that make people different even within the same community. I wouldn't say bending the truth, but just eliminating small specific factors will make people come together.
TiP: Ultimately, I think the truth is in the details.
King: There's that, there's an image that you might see that is very ABC. But within the details, there's something that's going to speak to an entirely different community that they will understand that another group might not understand. There's queerness and gayness, there's the white gay community that might see an image as such, but then there are queer Black folks that will see it a level deeper because of the details. In general, it's serving everyone as something powerful and important. But there's layers to that within different communities.
King: Having agency over my own story and the story of others is really important. But that's the work I do and that other queer Black photographers are doing. What any artist should be doing is telling their own narratives and speaking from within without all this crossfire with people who don't have the experience and are projecting their ideas.
TiP: What you're saying is that you want to have agency over the way in which you're represented and presented to the world. It seems to me that for you, that's the truth you're pursuing. Could you talk about that?
King: Well, when you’re talking about truth within the storytelling and telling your narrative, it's important to be universal because there are lots of components that make people different even within the same community. I wouldn't say bending the truth, but just eliminating small specific factors will make people come together.
TiP: Ultimately, I think the truth is in the details.
King: There's that, there's an image that you might see that is very ABC. But within the details, there's something that's going to speak to an entirely different community that they will understand that another group might not understand. There's queerness and gayness, there's the white gay community that might see an image as such, but then there are queer Black folks that will see it a level deeper because of the details. In general, it's serving everyone as something powerful and important. But there's layers to that within different communities.
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