'It's hard to stop rebels that time travel' PART III with Raymond Thompson Jr.
'It's hard to stop rebels that time travel' PART III with Raymond Thompson Jr.
Join us via Zoom Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024 at 7 pm ET
Can we bend time back on itself through image, text, and narrative? Photographer Raymond Thompson Jr. is aspiring to do just that. “It’s hard to stop rebels that time travel” is Raymond’s re-memory project that stretches across a 240-year period of time beginning with the hidden worlds of borderland maroons living on the margins of plantations in the 18th century to present-day counties surrounding New Bern, North Carolina. The sights and locations in Raymond’s photographs become portals in the landscape, allowing us to slip between past, present, and future. For Raymond, portals are not limited to physical doorways but can be seen in the eyes of present-day black people who continue to survive in these places.
Raymond has generously offered us a behind-the-scenes look at his unfolding process and photographic practice via periodic check-ins and updates on his project. Join us for Part III as Raymond shares new questions, photographs, and creative revelations that have emerged since our last conversations, including a sneak peek at his emerging book and thoughts on transforming this work from the studio to the gallery walls. With Raymond as our guide, we will explore how photography can help us engage in personal and cultural explorations of our own family histories.
In preparation for this talk, check out Raymond’s previous talks:
Raymond Thompson Jr. is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and visual journalist based in Austin, TX. He currently works as an Assistant Professor of Photojournalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He has received an MFA in Photography from West Virginia University and a MA in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. He also graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a BA in American Studies. He has worked as a freelance photographer for The New York Times, The Intercept, NBC News, NPR, Politico, ProPublica, The Nature Conservancy, ACLU, WBEZ, Google, Merrell, and the Associated Press and was selected as one of the top 50 photographers for Critical Mass 2022.