Self Portrait/One Plus One (2018)

The form and the content of Self Portrait/One Plus One together accentuate the concept of the generative matrix and that of the multiple: not only in papermaking, but also in how life begins.
Each of the 23 pages of the Japanese-bound book had portraits of my mom and my dad blown into it as watermarks during sheet-forming, before being folded and bound. Varying both the sequence and the orientation of the portraits, each page is a unique fusion of my parents, such is each pair of my chromosomes.

This Is Water (2017)

According to Buddhist literature, we are conditioned to overlook the impermanence of life. We do not see things as they are because our minds are like bowls of water that are ruffled by the wind, making it impossible for us to see clear reflections.

My Badge Says I Can Do No Wrong. My Badge Says I Can Do No Wrong? My Badge Says I Can Do No Wrong. (2016)

My Badge Says I Can Do No Wrong consists of two rows of six 10" x 10" prints. In the top row are three portraits of the police officer Betty Shelby, interrupted by a portrait of Terence Crutcher, and followed by two more portraits of Shelby. Similarly, the bottom row consists of two portraits of the judge Aaron Persky, interrupted by a portrait of Brock Turner, and then followed by three more portraits of Persky. Both the portraits of Shelby and those of Persky have a sense of graininess from the woodblock.

UNTITLED PROJECT, with Bonnie Jones

The electronic composer and improvisor Bonnie Jones and I are working on a project to combine our two practices, which are quite different in method if not in aim. Jones has developed a toolbox of hacked delay pedals, field recordings, telephone microphones, and other noise-producing elements from which to create real-time improvisations that whirr and sing. I am a score-based practitioner, writing determinate music for instrumentalists to bring their years of study to, to explore their instrument anew with the confidence of a virtuoso.

Your Body Is but a Vessel (2017)

Murder; Suicide (Grey) and the following two prints were inspired by the death of a 26-year-old pregnant Chinese woman, Ma Rongrong, who had no access to epidural anesthesia and was denied a C-section to relieve her unbearable pain during childbirth. On August 31, 2017, she jumped from her hospital labor room, killing herself and her baby. Deprived of the control over her own body, she reclaimed it with her final leap.

Baltimore Musicians, 2018

The motivation for my musician portraits is always to capture the bands/artists the way they want to be seen. I was disheartened to hear that magazines and photographers would often ask bands to dress up or pose in a way that would better “fit their music." As a photographer and musician myself, that doesn't feel right to me. The best work I've ever created comes from collaboration, which is what I strive for.

Abdu Ali
Medium Format Film | Mamiya 7II | Kodak 400
Promotional photos for Baltimore electronic musician/writer Abdu Ali.
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