Mopéomo Adesola
Utopia
Afrocentrism, a polylithic cultural identity. Composing arts, love, music & nature. The beauty of such a world does exist, I believe it does
Reality
I love spending time with loved ones at night. We’re either bar hopping, singing and dancing on the street, taking a two-minute nap somewhere, or heading to the next event. When you look at this image, what do you see? The emptiness of the world, yet it’s filled with such fullness as we add laughter, playfulness, and curiosity.
Dystopia
The city life is a war zone of upkeeping aesthetics within landmarks. How does this image make you feel? We hide within or at the back of concrete, not fully integrating ourselves with nature, yet we go by Fells Point to get drunk by the water to feel a sense of peace. To me, this is dystopia.
Kimberly Coleman
Utopia
A lot of people’s childhoods remind them of happiness. As a baby you don't know a lot of things, but the smiles and laughs you experience make the best memories.
Reality
To me, reality is something that's part of everyday life, without a filter or anything. In the kitchen, sometimes people make things and they are either too exhausted or too lazy to clean it up.
Dystopia
The cats here on campus are homeless, they get sick and no one takes them to the vet. They always go to people when they see they have food, because they don’t get fed like they are supposed to. It’s sad because they are not getting the treatment that they need, and I can tell by looking in their eyes that they are just trying to survive.
Nicholas Henderson
Utopia
This is an image of Lake Ashburton. It’s located in northwest Baltimore. People sometimes walk or ride their bike around it, but usually it’s deserted. Being near its calm water and feeling the slight breeze gives one a peaceful and serene feeling.
Reality
This is a photo of myself just getting up. This is what I do almost every day (this exact pose, mind you). I'm gathering my thoughts about what I need to do throughout the day.
Dystopia
There are a lot of boarded up houses in northwest Baltimore. Some are worse off than others, but this one caught my eye. Although it's not uncommon to see graffiti on boarded up houses, on this house one of the messages read “BLACK LIVES NEED TO MATTER TO BLACK PEOPLE.” This message meant a lot to me personally. I believe we tend to be quick to react in situations of white-on-black violence and police brutality. People demonstrate and protest, putting in an effort to find a resolution to the problem. I don’t see the same effort with black-on-black crime so much. There are groups out there that can mend this problem, but at the end of the day the average citizens (parents, guardians, mentors, family members) have the biggest impact in bringing down this trend of violence.
Chomi Kani-Goba
Utopia
Nature is grounding and healing. It is filled with spiritual mystery and power. It is the one place I know I can go to find empathy, connection and compassion, in a world so much bigger than me. I experience the wonder and awe of Spirits’ creation and know I am safe in Their hands.
As a child I wasn’t allowed to play outside, but when my parents would leave town my brothers, sisters, and I would sneak outside and swing from tree limbs. I always found myself in water and believed that is where I came from. In Indiana, I have intimate memories of seeing mermaids behind my apartment complex in a secret oasis. Years ago, I asked my mother if she ever saw a mermaid in Moyamba, a small farm country in Sierra Leone. She smiled and said no, but her mother received a mirror one day when she was walking along the seaside. My grandmother pocketed it, believing it was a gift. Some would call it the beginning. When she brought it to my grandfather, who was a child of missionaries and himself an organist at a Christian church, he tossed it back to sea where it “belonged.”
Whenever I head to woods, to the streams to lay on rocks and let the liquid soul of the forest purify me, I am being filled with power. I am being healed.
Reality
I decided that in 2023 I would invest more in myself and my passions. That I would cultivate more safety and honor all sides of myself. Last year, I spent three months at Sheppard Pratt due to my mental health. I was diagnosed with dissociative identity and major depression disorder. These disorders have a major impact on my self-image, worth, my ability to care for myself and find joy in the things I love.
I’m naturally a creative person and photography and fashion is one of the many mediums that I use to express this. My creativity was never affirmed during my childhood, and it was viewed as nonsensical. Whether it came to my art or my personal expression, I was heavily bullied, so subconsciously I felt the desire to keep this side of me hidden. Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been draping my body with all different styles of clothing and connecting to my purpose - which is to create. This photo represents the blossoming of my own self-love, and viewing myself, my art, and my voice as deserving of devotion.
Dystopia
Luckily, my parents never forced religion on me, but I’ve always been fascinated with organized religion and the psychological chokehold it has over society; primarily on the women who look and breathe like me.
During crisis, devastation, heartbreak and trauma, black women almost always turn to religion and spirituality (including me). Older generations always tell us to pray as the first solution. My mother would always say that God (the one of her understanding) would provide, admitting the financial hardship, exploitation and violence we faced. I always wondered why God never provided us protection. What happens when God doesn’t listen to your prayers or becomes so distorted by Man that He establishes the status of women as inferior.
The God I was introduced to is the reason why my mother is a female genital mutilation survivor and has never experienced sexual love or pleasure from a man. He’s the reason my sisters and I were shamed throughout our adolescence and left with guilt and hostility towards our bodies. He’s one of the reasons why I work to surrender to the act of vulnerability, intimacy, and the power of the erotic.
Jaleyhia Smith
Utopia: Land of Ayyara
My understanding of utopia is a new slate for humanity and an adventure through nature.
Reality: Illusion of Self
My reality is represented by the imperfections of my body, and the imperfections of others. Our imperfections are our reality, what we truly see, yet dismiss in hopes of pleasing others.
Dystopia: Dark Time Clock
I see dystopia as a power struggle between a higher authority and a lower population, followed by an overthrowing of authority for a change. My photo shows some images similar to the renaissance period. The renaissance was a time of art and passion through corruption.
Zoe Stafford
Utopia
Isles of Paradise. Sanctuary of hope.
The act of love, creation, and passion. Man-made utopia.
Reality
A welder lost. An angel gained. In life, we are often recognized by our productivity.
Given titles and labels that categorize us by things that are meaningless to the soul.
What matters more? What you can accomplish or who you are behind closed doors?
Dystopia
In this world, Dystopia is the act of rebuilding a new life from the bottom up.
Erasing the history of the past. Restricted from entry during this process.
Phoenix Wilson
Utopia
I wanted to depict connection, because that’s what a lot of us are searching for. I believe capitalism pushes the idea that romantic love is the ultimate form of connection, and I wrestle with that because so much of Queer community is formed through romantic connections. So I am presenting Saada and her lover, Jay. Notice that the picture of the lovers is superimposed upon another image, the lines not perfectly lining up. Utopias are “perfect” worlds that can never exist. This love is real!
Reality
I am showing the behind-the-scenes of the photoshoot I planned, which is how the backyard actually looks. Saada, front and center, is doing what a lot of us do to pass the time, surrounded by some of my creature comforts strewn about.
Dystopia
For this photo, I thought about colonialism and how it’s impacted the way we view both religion and technology. Christianity, specifically the image of the fictional white Jesus, was/is used to subjugate the African diaspora. With technology, I thought about the current subjugation of Africans through cobalt mining. Cobalt is a mineral that is toxic to touch, and exposure to the substance is dangerous to the heart and lungs. Almost all lithium-ion batteries (like the ones in mobile phones) are made with cobalt, much of the extraction of the mineral involves modern-day slavery, human trafficking, and child labor. It is extremely dangerous labor for which many African people, particularly in the DRC, are exploited. Cobalt mining is a huge industry for which the hardest workers are often paid the least, even when they are manufacturing technology that our society is completely dependent on. There is nothing more dystopian than when the exploitation of people is made essential for the convenience of others.