Dual Exhibition: Cheriss May & Kwaku Alston

Leica Gallery Los Angeles is proud to present a dual exhibition featuring the works of Cheriss May & Kwaku Alston. On view from May 1st - July 5th, 2021. Private viewing upon request. Contact Leica Gallery Manager Paris Chong at (424) 777-0347 to book an appointment.

Soul Connection
By Cheriss May
Photographer Cheriss May discovered that visual storytelling is her passion, and found her purpose. She documents history and democracy as a photographer based in Washington, DC. Cheriss’s work centers on the intersectionality of race, culture, and politics — from the White House to Capitol Hill, and in communities in the Washington metropolitan area. Through her recent work documenting the ceremonial vote count at the U.S. Capitol, Cheriss was inside during the insurrection. Although traumatic, Cheriss continued to work while barricaded in Congressman Jim Clyburn’s office with his staff. She finds strength through telling the powerful stories of people who are passionate in what they do, resilient in spite of challenges. Cheriss is an advocate for inclusive storytellers and storytelling, lecturing and leading photography organizations that work towards gender, racial and social parity in the industry. 
   

Somewhere in Between 
By Kwaku Alston
There has always been the space in-between. Like a cloud—not the technological imposter it has inspired, it is a nebulous, dynamic space of constant interchange, respiration and restoration. It is a space of contemplation, neither here nor there, but transitional, and transformative—a space where unexpected truths collide and reveal themselves. It is not a space of commerce, client expectations, finessing of egos and concrete intention - it is not show time. Rather it is a space of flow, an ascent to a kind of presence and coalescence of mind, soul and spirit. This selection of images travels along those contours and plunge, tumbling in free fall into such moments of my photographic experience. To be sure there is process, practice and professional seasoning, yet these unguarded instances reflect
my devotion to what Maya Angelou once described as, “rainbows placed divinely amongst clouds to reveal hope.”

  
Her prayer-like assertion of a mystic play between light, color and the elements underscores for me that it is never where I have left or where I arrive that I find meaning, but the space in between, where I may draw the deepest breaths of my expression.