“You can tell by the way she stands, she was somethin’ else,” Lola Flash refers to her photo entitled “Toni” from her epic series Salt.
Awarded a grant from the Art Matters foundation in 2011, Flash created Salt—images of notable women over 70 set in the texture of their homes. “I was able to travel. I used a 4x5 large format camera; the film is costly,” Avoiding the digital route, “You have to shoot and cross your fingers,” the fine artist adds.
Flash met her model at an art show called Bridging the Gap: Photographs by Gordon Parks and Toni Parks. Toni Parks-Parson, an esteemed artist, is the daughter of legendary photographer/filmmaker, Gordon Parks. “Toni passed a couple of years ago. She was part-mom, part-friend.”
Black, queer and female, capturing the layers, the beauty of the people and the spirit is at the core of her artistic intentions. Flash concludes, “I like to say, God’s plan was, I’m going to give these people more melanin. It’s going take them longer to get where they're going, but when they do, I want them to look good.”
View Salt and more Lola Flash photography at lolaflash.com.
