Indigo Girls

Striking images from self taught artist and photographer Tawny Chatmon. These girls are from her 2017 Indigo series. In this series, she “loosely combines traces of African and African American culture with renaissance undertones [and it] involved amplifying and combining hairstyles, manipulating and combining features, and often merging and piecing together eyes from a variety of different sources with my subjects eyes resulting in them appearing more knowing & directly connected to lost ancestry celebrating African lineage and the varying beauty of Black children.” This is one of the primary themes that drive Chatmon’s art and these Indigo girls have it in spades.

On her website descibes the work process in more detail: “My camera remains my primary tool of communication, while my constant exploration of diverse ways of expression moves me to add several different layers using a variety of mediums. After a portrait session is complete, I typically digitally manipulate my subjects and unite them with other photographic components to achieve a work that is a new photographic expression (often lending to them the eyes of someone their elder). Thereafter, I may montage repurposed antique patterns and textures, vintage botanical and wildlife illustrations or hand drawn digital illustration. If I feel I am not yet complete, after each portrait is refined and printed, I may combine paint and gilding adding ornamental elements inspired by 19th century artworks. Each layer is meaningful and intentionally placed”.  In 2018 Tawny Chatmon was the winner of the  IPA People photographer of the year.