#wmkphotos

[thebearmaiden]

Me at 11. Stylin’ y’all. Also, I will survive the apocalypse cuz I can make a full meal with a little flour, some coconut oil and a green papaya cooked over an open fire. #Repost @wmkelley with @make_repost ・・・ Back at home, WMK kind if had his own yaad, in Bull Bay, 10 miles east of Kingston. @aiki_art29 and @thebearmaiden preparing dinner (probably some form of soup in the Dutchie, and flatbread) on the “two burner stove.” Propane was expensive. Bull Bay Jamaica 1976 #BullBay #innadiyaad #campfirecooking #family #africandiaspora #thediaspora #FamilyEyePhoto #blackandwhitephotography #photography #blackphotographer #digginginthecrates #jamaica #vintageJamaica #williammelvinkelley #wmkphotos #pentaxasahispotmatic https://www.instagram.com/p/CQzhw8rLTmP/?utm_medium=tumblr

[thebearmaiden]

Is and Poppy. 👉🏽 @wmkelley for the adventure #Repost @wmkelley with @make_repost ・・・ Because WMK was always behind the lens images of him, particularly with his daughters, are few and far between (parents, take pictures WITH your kids… we value them later). Here a few taken by @aiki_art29 with WMK’s camera in the beautiful front yard of our house on Montgomery Avenue, Kingston 10. Christmas Day 1967, the beginning of our Jamaican journey. #FamilyEyePhoto #blackandwhitephotography #photography #blackohotographer #digginginthecrates #paris #jamaica #williammelvinkelley #wmkphotos #family #africandiaspora #pentaxasahispotmatic (at Kingston Jamaica W.I) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQv0Bn7r0Gd/?utm_medium=tumblr

[thebearmaiden]

It’s gonna be a blast…. #Repost @wmkelley with @make_repost ・・・ For the past month we have begun to able to tackle the monumental task of archiving and cataloging WMK’s enourmous body of photographic work. He began shooting in earnest in 1967, with a @pentax.jp Asahi Spotmatic, and he took pictures continuously until the camera “died” in 1989. He only shot black and white. After meeting Henri Cartier Bresson in Paris when he came to photograph WMK, he never cropped his prints. He saved EVERY negative of every photo he ever took, and that includes photos from prior to 1967 when he had a Kodak Brownie. He ALSO had saved every negative from every photo his father took. We are probably just over halfway done archiving the negatives, then they will be scanned. Most of the photos were of “My Three Ladies” and their growth, but thousands more are of the Diaspora, the people he loved most. There are pictures of (borrowing a title from @jayzz_official and Kanye, here 😂) “Ni**az in Paris” including @marionbrownofficial, African princes and other travelers; there are THOUSANDS of pictures of Jamaica and every day life inna di tenement yaad, contrasted with the more “bougie” lifestyles of more affluent Jamaicans and business owners (a few of this collection were seen in @guardian in 2018); and then thousands more of sweet Harlem when we came back to this country in 1977. In Jamaica particularly, he had hoped to have his photography be a second income. He stamped some of his prints “Please credit Eyely Photo” and that was later changed to “Family Eye.” Over time, as more of the collection is digitized, we intend to flood this page with some of this work. Y’all have no idea what’s about to hit you… #staytuned #FamilyEyePhoto #blackandwhitephotography #photography #blackohotographer #digginginthecrates #paris #jamaica #williammelvinkelley #wmkphotos #family #africandiaspora #pentaxasahispotmatic (at Kingston Jamaica W.I) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQvzY3BrFLn/?utm_medium=tumblr