A Photography Show Celebrating Black New York Opens at the World Trade Center

Earlier this week, on the C1 level of downtown Manhattan’s Oculus, the luxury shopping hub designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, soulful R&B drifted through the long white corridors, peaking the interest of tourists windows shopping at Tissot and Victoria’s Secret and waving fragrant samples of L’Occitane en Provence products in the air for a whiff of lemon, lavender or vanilla.

The music was coming from the New York City Culture Club, where a photo exhibition that focuses on community, fame, and Black culture in New York City titled “Echoes of Tomorrow: We Are The Future Ancestors” opened on Tuesday night.

Roughly 100 guests gathered into the small-ish space, which was filled with prints ranging from traditional 8x10s to some that were nearly five-feet long. The group show, organized by the independent curator and former R&B singer Mashonda Tifrere, includes works by Jamel Shabazz, who has been documenting hip-hop and street culture since 1980, Flo Ngala, a photojournalist and the first Black woman to photograph the Met Gala, and Laylah Barrayn, a frequent contributor to the New York Times. The show also features works by Steven John Irby, Shandora “Shakka” Smith, and Johnny Nunez.

Echos was originally conceived as a solo show of Ngala’s work. But, following the curatorial invitation from the Culture Club’s founders Parker and Clayton Calvert, Tifrere’s decided to expanded the idea into a group show that focused on local New York City photographers who, as Tifrere puts it, “capture the city’s essence authentically” and encourage a feeling of community. That decision successfully puts Ngala, who has never shown in a gallery, in conversation with legends like Shabazz and up-and-commers like Shakka.

Among the standout images was Shabazz’s 3 Stages of Life., a black-and-white family portrait of sorts captured in 1995 of a young Black girl and her pregnant mother. Both are wearing bathing suits so it’s easy for one to imagine a swimming pool nearby. The mother stands close behind the girl holding her outstretched hand, her belly protruding so far out from her slender legs that it almost acts an alcove under which the child can hide from the sun or contemplate whether or not she wants to jump into the pool below. Another black and white image, this one by Irby made in 2020, shows a flood of Black Lives Matter demonstrators marching over the Williamsburg Bridge. In the center of the image is a school bus on top of which stands a sole figure holding on to a railing and flanked by an amplifier.

There are also images of celebrity—a portrait of Nas complete with a crisp white shirt, cigar, and diamond encrusted pinkie ring, Mary J. Blige looking at once mighty and elegant in black leather, and Method Man looking effortlessly cool and chic in a black, peak lapeled suit with gold accoutrement.

A portion of the proceeds from sales at the show will go to the supplementary educational program Summer on the Hill at Horace Mann School which provides year-round enrichment “to promising, disadvantaged public school students from the Bronx, Washington Heights, and Harlem.”

“Echoes”, which Tifrere funded on her own, is the sixth show she has curated this year. A solo exhibition by Lanise Howard titled “M.U.S.E. Miss. Understood. Sensuality. Economized” recently closed at Praz-Delavallade in Los Angeles, and, earlier this year, she curated a group show at NeueHouse Venice Beach called “Easy Like Sunday Morning.”

With so many shows organized this year, Tifrere said she considers her herself not just a curator but an operator of a “nomadic gallery” under the moniker of her non-profit organization Art Genesis, which throughout the year uses different spaces to exhibit art with the purpose of provide opportunities for entrepreneurial emerging and established artists. However, soon the nomadic life may be behind her. Tifrere told ARTnews she is working on establishing a permanent space in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, with plans for artist residencies.

The show runs through June 27.