Halifax photographer captures triumphs and heartbreak of life in Black community

A Halifax photographer with an eye for social realism and the experience of his Black family and community has a new exhibit on display at the Dalhousie Art Gallery.

Allen D. Crooks’s collection is titled Family Matters, and is part of As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic, a travelling exhibition by Black photographers of Black subjects.

Crooks spoke with Information Morning Halifax host Portia Clark to explain more about his process and inspiration. 

Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

LISTEN | Allen D. Crooks on his new photo exhibit, Family Matters

Tell me a little bit about what you were hoping to capture and have captured in this collection called Family Matters.

The interesting thing is, the photographs didn’t start out as a project — over the number of years, [I was] documenting family gatherings and so on — and then when the opportunity came to do the show, I started literally reflecting and and rummaging through images I had captured and never really printed or done anything with.

This is all on black-and-white film and so it really caused a reflection on my family and also people who I consider family who aren’t related by blood.

When you’re looking through these photographs, did a theme or feeling emerge since you had to narrow down how many photos you would include?

Absolutely. Some of them have more emotion — photographs have emotion and energy — but I grouped a bunch of photos on my studio wall and Pamela Edmonds, who’s the amazing director and curator at Dal, was coming for a visit. So I thought, I’m going to make it easy for her to say yes. So when she walked in and saw the photo sequenced the way I had envisioned the show being, she looked at them and paused, and I was like “OK, what does that pause mean?”

And then she just said, “This looks like a show,” and I’m very grateful for her giving me this opportunity.

If there is a theme, it seems to be to show everyday African Nova Scotian life — both hardship and celebration. How did you find that balance?

Yeah. It’s true because there are photos that are strong, sentimental, warm and fuzzy, and then the harsh reality of life, and the harsh reality of life means death sometimes, and we have to deal with that, and a portion of that is just focused on my mom and her transition after being diagnosed with mesothelioma. 

It’s a balance between — it’s just like music, it goes, it goes up and down — so I think the sequence of the photographs is going to reflect that.

Why do you start with a self-portrait, Allen?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Because I just thought it’s kind of about me. When we talk about self-portraits, or now we refer to them as selfies, photographers — especially shooting with proper cameras, I use that term — have long through history made interesting self-portraits and I won’t give away the thunder too much, but a lot of times we’re looking in windows and we’re seeing reflections of ourselves and we’re seeing stuff in the window that may have meaning or psychological undertones.

So that was one of the photographs, especially a self-portrait, where I realized I was really starting to make sense of photography and so I thought it would be appropriate to use that one to kick off the sequence of photographs.

Is there another photograph that you really have spent time yourself just looking at for long periods because it evokes so much and you’re so pleased with how it comes across, Allen?

Yeah, oh man, so there’s one — it’s a young couple, and a lot of times I don’t put the titles on the photographs, but I called them Perfect Strangers.

I met them on Valentine’s Day, and there was this loving connection with this young couple that I came across and as photographers sometimes, mostly with people, you see somebody and you just have this feeling that you absolutely have to have their photograph because there’s something there that’s so authentic.

So I approached this couple and wanted to do portraits of them, and sometimes when you do that, you can lose what you saw that originally attracted you to that image, so once I made a couple of photographs of them, what I got actually was better than what I originally saw.

I think in that moment, you know, there was not only this amazing connection between this young couple, but they felt comfortable with me, and in that moment, we just connected.

When I look at this photograph, it just really gets to me and once again, they’re not family, but it was just like this connection that was so strong that I just couldn’t help myself. So when I see that photograph and I see people’s reactions to it, it really, really makes me feel great that I took the chance to have that encounter.

I mentioned the exhibition, As We Rise, also up at the Dal Art Gallery, which shares the work of dozens of Black photographers. How does it feel to have your work alongside it?

Oh my God, Portia, you’re giving me goosebumps just thinking about that, because it’s such an amazing collection owned by a Canadian, Dr. Kenneth Montague from Toronto.

First of all, having my images breathing the same air as this collection, it’s just so affirming and validating of what I’m doing.

But more specifically, some of the photographs in the exhibition are by photographers that I’ve admired for forever, including the legendary Gordon Parks, who, among being an amazing photographer, directed the infamous Shaft movie, so just having my images in close proximity of some of this legendary work has really been an amazing journey over the last couple of weeks.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.