A two part reply. Your photography tells me that you have what my mother called “an artist’s eye”. Last year, Dario Calmese was the first black photographer to shoot a cover for Vanity Fair and it made quite a stir. Just in case you missed this particular article I wanted to make sure you had a chance to read what Calmese had to say about this work – links below.

Part 2 - Sketch artists used to be common at piers, amusement parks and fairs. Being an artist, and portrait painter, my mother had a critical eye. Hmmph, she’d say later, he had good technique, but he didn’t have an artist’s eye. If you want to be an artist, you have to learn how to pull your mind out of your eyes.

Mama’s lessons made me look closer, longer and study things. It took a while for me to see what she meant. It didn’t matter who the subject was, in the hands of a white artist, the subject always looked white.

One day there was a Japanese sketch artist at the pier – and I was sure everyone he sketched would look like him. Nope. I was wrong. Mama said, this man had an artist’s eye, handed him her money and sat down to have him draw her. The next year, a black artist was at the pier. We watched a while and Mama handed him her money and had him sketch me. I complained about my portrait, but Mama made me look at it closer. I had to admit, she was right. The girl in that sketch did not match the way the girl felt about the way she looked, but she looked just like me. What a remarkable feeling.

I am my mother’s daughter. When I grew up, I told my kids, if you want beauty in your life, you have to learn to see it.

The Black Photographer Making History at Vanity Fair

Viola Davis appears on the cover of this month’s issue, the first by a Black photographer, in an image meant to be a protest.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/style/the-black-photographer-making-history-at-vanity-fair.html

Dario Caqlamese

http://www.dariocalmese.com/new-gallery/kihr3lzdt2hhtysdffdawfu61z2819