Amir Saadiq
[Image description: A black and white photo of a man looking out over a body of water. He has melanated skin, short hair, and a beard.]
Amir Saadiq’s practice focuses on challenging social norms and representation while exploring the intersectionality of economics, politics, activism, religion and Blackness. As a Black man, he has seen the generational effects of systematic oppression, and as a visual artist, he was struck by how many images depicted of his community were taken by interlopers. This led him to create images countering mainstream tropes dictated by Western Epistemology.
Saadiq’s work aims to diversify the traditional canon of photography by using images to spark culturally relevant conversations. Studying literature, in particular historical fiction, widened his perspective, and he now experiments with new forms of storytelling using narrative, fiction, and time to address historical and systemic factors informing his work. Saadiq is currently a graduate student in the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of California San Diego.
Read about his work on HereIn: