Clifford Prince King’s photographs tenderly capture the beauty of friendship, companionship, and self-expression. A self-taught photographer based in New York City, King (b. 1993, Tucson, AZ) documents his own intimate relationships and experiences as a queer Black man, recording his life and the ways it is shaped by the people that surround him. Growing up in Arizona, King didn’t see his own identity reflected in images. This desire for representation led him to create deeply personal photographs that extend an invitation to diverse audiences seeking community, safety, and a sense of belonging. Let me know when you get home is the artist’s first public art exhibition, presented on 330 JCDecaux bus shelters and newsstands across New York City, Chicago, and Boston.
For this series, King has photographed the people and places he encountered during recent summer trips to Brazil and the Cayman Islands, and artist residencies at BOFFO on Fire Island, NY, Light Work in Syracuse, NY, and Eighth House in Vermont. In 13 works, made both within the security of people’s homes and in nature, King captures intimate moments of desire, affection, and self-realization. A capoeira dancer performing on a rooftop in São Paulo, a couple cozily standing by the waterfront in the rain, two men kissing while handcuffed off the side of the road in Upstate New York, among others. Shot with a film camera that gives the work a timeless, grainy, almost cinematic quality, figures are bathed in warm natural light revealing the beauty in details. Presented larger-than-life, these arresting portraits often gaze directly at the viewer, diminishing the space between audience and subject.
With this work, King strives to make space for people like himself in the city streets. The collection of photographs form a visual journey tracing King’s summer travels that cumulatively reveal a meditative self-portrait. Let me know when you get home marks a nomadic period in the artist’s life where the people that surrounded him temporarily became his home.
Clifford Prince King: Let me know when you get home is curated by Public Art Fund Adjunct Curator Katerina Stathopoulou.
