CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 4/26/2023

Rizzoli Bookstore presents Eric Hart Jr. and Elliott Jerome Brown Jr. on 'When I Think about Power'

Monday, May 15 at 6 PM, Rizzoli Bookstore presents photographer Eric Hart Jr. in conversation with Elliott Jerome Brown Jr. about his new monograph When I Think about Power, a collection of sumptuous and tender portraits of an empowered Black queer experience, published by Damiani. RSVPs are encouraged. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Doors open at 5:30 PM. Can't attend? Order your signed copy here!

Eric Hart Jr.’s black-and-white photo series presents more than 70 portraits focusing on the notion of power as it relates to the Black queer experience. Begun in 2019, When I Think about Power, investigates and expands the contemporary reimagining of men through themed chapters. “I'm fascinated with the intersectionality and the layers of what it means to be Black in the modern day,” he has said. “From masculinity, queerness, to dress, I strive to utilize image-making in a way that displays people like myself in all of their power and all of their beauty.” Hart's approach stems from his own journey toward self-acceptance growing up in Macon, Georgia. By visually exploring the differences and similarities between himself and the men who surround him, studying the words of Black queer icons and researching the visibility of power in eras such as the Ming dynasty or ancient Egypt, Hart has created an iconography of a power that so many queer individuals seek.

Georgia native and NYU graduate, Eric Hart Jr. is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. As a photographer, Hart's stylized portraiture is an exploration of Blackness and shifting identities within Black culture. His visual language is influenced by the nuances of intersectionality. From masculinity, queerness, to dress, his work aims to display people like himself in all of their power and beauty. Hart's photo work has been published in publications such as i-D Magazine, The NY Times, The Washington Post and Rolling Stone magazine, as well as praised by artists such as Beyoncé and Spike Lee. Hart is a two-time Gordon Parks scholar, 2022 Forbes 30 under 30 Art & Style select, 2022 Doritos SOLID BLACK Changemaker and Google Image Equity Fellow.

Elliott Jerome Brown Jr. (born 1993, Baldwin, NY) is an artist using photography to explore representation through privacy and fiction. Occasionally the work turns away from standard archival prints to examine photography as a sculptural, redactive, and site-specific process. He has completed residencies at Abrons Art Center in New York, St. Roch Community Church in New Orleans, and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. He is a 2022 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Photography and received the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant in 2019. Brown received his BFA in Photography from New York University and is currently a Part-Time Lecturer in Photography at The New School in New York. He is represented by Nicelle Beauchene in New York and is currently based in Queens, New York.

Rizzoli Bookstore
Eric Hart Jr. and Elliott Jerome Brown Jr. on 'When I Think about Power'
Monday, May 15 at 6 PM
1133 Broadway
New York, NY 10010