Shawn Theodore
About:
Shawn Theodore is a full-time creative director for a cosmetics company based in Baltimore, and like anyone with a creative pulse he has a desire to yield work with significance, something that can endure through time. Since 2008, he has pursued this ideal by preserving something that is sadly fading in the US: our country’s black urban communities. Known on Instagram under the handle @_xst, or “exist,” Theodore posts striking high-contrast photos of black neighborhoods that come alive through an elegant combination of silhouettes, shadows, and saturated colors. They focus not on the crisis of urban decay but the vitality of Black America and the commonalities of experience. Whether his subjects are in NYC, Baltimore, Oakland, or his hometown of Philadelphia, Theodore examines themes of African-American identity, spirituality, and isolation.(quote from YaY! LA, magazine, August 2015)
Copyright photos: Shawn Theodore