"It's the confidence for me." Dee Dwyer admires her 2018 photograph, entitled "Boss Up", using the very word that, so far, describes her body of work. Dwyer captures confidence: Black men popping wheelies on four wheelers, The New Black Panther Party, epic moments in protest. Her art signifies courage, self-control, action and collective power.
Photographed in Southeast DC, Boss Up's subject is KnukleHead, a mightily tatted and dreadlocked rapper. "I was nervous to ask him for a picture, I was watching him for a while," Dwyer recalls. While a DJ blasted Go Go at the one-year anniversary for a neighborhood Black-owned deli, she finally approached the local artist and found him open to the moment. Dwyer and her camera took position, KnukleHead turned around and the image aligned.
Assuredly she states, "I focus on our culture to show the world what we're made of. Photography is my calling."
View more of her work at www.deedwyerjonts.com
