InspiHERed By spotlights phenomenal women in the Black queer community—everyone from artists to activists. Each week ELIXHER features someone whose personal journey and individual craft inspire us to dream bigger, laugh harder, and love deeper. I had the honor of speaking with Al Janae Hamilton, a talented photographer, filmmaker, painter and costume designer. Check her out…

ELIXHER: Tell us a little about yourself.
AL: Well, I’m Al. I’m from Miami, FL. I’ve been in NY for about four years. I’m 26 years old. I moved to NY initially to work in the fashion industry. I worked for a fashion house for about two years and I really figured out that it wasn’t fashion that I loved, it was more style and expression—figuring out why people dress the way they do and why people present their bodies in specific ways.

I had done my undergrad in Fashion Merchandising and I had always been fascinated with Black Power. So I went to Columbia for African American Studies to get my Masters. I began to study Black style, particularly the way that women in the Black Power era adorned themselves to express revolutionary thought. I looked at women in the Black Panther Party mostly and in other nationalist movements and then as I began to expand, I decided that I wanted to look more into other areas of expression, so sexuality, other types of political identities, feminism. That’s pretty much where I’m at now in the PhD stage where I’m writing about and thinking about Black women and the body and ideas of resistance and politics.

ELIXHER: How do you incorporate photography with your studies?
AL: It’s a challenge, but I just make it happen when I can. I’m trying to think of it as one body. I was thinking about it like, “I’ll do photography on the side” because it was an older passion that was dormant and I kind of picked it back up again this year. But I’m trying to think of it as one body of work, so that way I don’t feel like I’m compartmentalizing what I’m doing. Most of the photograph work that I do is related to my writing. It’s all interchangeable. I do a lot with Black women’s expression in my photography—a lot of queer women, a lot deals with politics and the body.

ELIXHER: When did you begin creating art?
AL: I went to an art school for middle school and you had to have a major. My major was photography. So photography-wise, the first major thing I did actually when I was about twelve or thirteen. I did a photography series called “Red, Black and Greens: Childhood Photographs from the Tennessee Homestead.” I took them at my grandmother’s farm. The feedback I received was really good. That’s when I realized I actually had a gift for photography. Then I didn’t pick up a camera until I moved to NY, until I was like 25. It was just like riding a bike and I really fell back in love with doing it.

With the costume design, I was kind of the person in undergrad who made costumes for everything, like for my sorority’s step shows. So, that’s where my costume design passion came from. Again, being really interested in Black style, I really wanted to interrogate historical costumes and I took a historic costume class that changed my world. When I moved to NY, I was able to work with the Classical Theatre of Harlem. I worked with them on a play that I think was 1920s Harlem. Then I really fell in love with doing period pieces.The film thing is new. I’m working on my first film. I’ve always been fascinated with the moving image. The film is allowing me to explore ideas of sexuality and wearing both types of identities through your body, through dress, style, posture. And how that’s read by others, the person wearing it, how that is a tool or conduit for their expression.

I’ve only started very seriously painting recently, but I’ve also kind of done stuff here and there. I’m working on my first major solo show, which will be this summer and it’ll be mixed media. So I’ll have photography, art installation, costume design, and painting in that show.

ELIXHER: What are your favorite subjects to photograph and paint?
AL: Black folk. [Laughs.] It’s usually just things that I find beautiful, so I think elderly Black women are beautiful. I’m really interested in ideas of Blackness and who gets to claim Blackness. I’m into mostly candids. I like capturing expression as it happens. But I’m interested also in moving into staged work. I’m really interested in doing group nude shots, so that’s a project I’m going to do in the spring because I’m really interested in how lighting plays off of skin.

I paint everything. I’m working on a series, again working with this idea of Blackness and who’s in and outside it. The series is of aliens, playing off the idea of belonging and who is claiming which territories.

ELIXHER: At the moment, you wear several hats. What do you see yourself doing ultimately?
AL: Ultimately, I’d like to teach on the side and continue to write on issues of Black women’s style. But I think first and foremost I consider myself to be an artist. That’s always going to be priority. Photography, costume design, art installation, anything dealing with art is probably number one for me. But I enjoy doing the research too because people aren’t really writing about Black women’s bodily expressions, so it’s been a blessing and curse. When I go to write something there isn’t a lot of research, but I feel like I’m making a contribution when I do that also. So I think I’m always going to be juggling them all.

ELIXHER: How would you describe yourself in three words?
AL: Three words? I would say nerdy, artistic, and kind of quirky, I guess.

ELIXHER: What’s the biggest misconception people have of you?
AL: Hmm, I don’t know. I’m pretty open, you know? I think a lot of times what you see is what you get. People think I’m cooler than I am. [Laughs.] They think being a nerd is like this trendy thing now and I’m like, no, I’m really kind of uncool.

ELIXHER: What is the biggest challenge you’ve had to face and how did you overcome it?
AL: It probably isn’t the biggest challenge, but what’s popping into my head is the decision to pursue being an artist. It was a difficult decision to make because part of you is concerned with the pragmatic route and what am I going to make a living doing. I have an older brother, he’s fifteen years older. He’s an artist as well as a musician, and he’s queer as well. He delayed a lot because he was thinking about the practical and he always told me you have to go for it, what’s going to make you happy. He was a big influence.

I’m not really looking for the approval. I’m just concerned with being able to make the contributions that I know I can make, which is going to come from what I’m gifted to do. If I try to do something else, I’m not really going to be serving what my purpose is. I think when you can do that that’s when you’re actually going to put something positive back into the atmosphere—when you’re doing what is actually giving you joy.

ELIXHER: Who or what inspires you?
AL: My friends inspire me. I’ve really been blessed to have a chosen family here and to be surrounded by so many powerful Black women. Everyone’s an artist—a poet or a visual artist or a dancer or an actress—and we share the same struggles. They inspire me everyday.

ELIXHER: What makes you proud to be part of the Black queer community?
AL: Everyone is coming to the table with so many things: different backgrounds within Blackness, different geographic locations, different politics, different ages, everything. But in a way, there’s a shared struggle. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just NY, but the entire queer community seems to be a bunch of artists and writers and I think that’s something very special.

It could be the age range that I hang out with, the mid twenties to the mid thirties range. We’re all figuring what it is we want out of life and we’re all figuring out what our careers are going to look like, what our families are going to look like, what our lives are going to look like. There’s a sense of being in the same boat, but also an appreciation for the diversity and variety and the beauty within the difference as well. It’s very grounding that people seem to be going through the same thing.

But you know, what I’m also learning is that there are many Black queer communities in NY. So I guess all that I’m saying is really speaking to the one that I’m a part of.

ELIXHER: What changes would you like to see in the Black queer community?
AL: We go to events together, we party together, we go to potlucks together and all that stuff, but I don’t know how much we talk about our journeys in regard to sexuality and queerness and what that means for everyone. Not that that has to be the main issue because we’re more than that one identity, but we’re here, we got to this place and if you think about your own story and whatever your road to where you are now in regards to queerness and sexuality, you know your journey and so everyone has had some process. We don’t really talk about that a lot. It’s inspiring to know that everyone is getting through it.

ELIXHER: What’s next for Al?
AL: Well, this is my first semester of a PhD program that’s going to take me 5 – 7 years to finish, so I guess that’s next—getting my doctorate finally one day far in the future is next hopefully. [Laughs.] Then after that I guess the dissertation will turn into a book. So that will be nice. My film is on the radar. I think what’s next is just everything that I’m doing, just continuing with it and hopefully it all coming to fruition one day.

Check out more of Al’s work here.

Also, check out her upcoming projects!

Sat., May 14th: Radicalizing the Black Female Body: Fashioning Black Power from Olive Morris to Pam Grier, talk at Brooklyn Museum (200 Eastern Parkway, 2 or 3 train to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum) Time TBA, Free

Castings for “Dapper” and “Black Ain’t” Photography Series: “Dapper” surrounds contemporary images of Black dapper style and complicates the idea of the Black dandy, fop, etc. “Black Ain’t” pushes the boundaries of conventional understandings of Blackness. Al is seeking participants involved in communities often referred to as “subculture” or “alternative” including but not limited to afro punk, s&m, afrofuturism, Black queer cultures (i.e. vogue), non-Christian/Muslim religious communities, etc. Casting will begin mid-May; shooting to begin in June.

For more information, email al@aljanaehamilton.com.

Category: InspiHERed By