FIERCE: Pittsburgh

Presented in collaboration with Rainbow Serpent

In thirteen portraits made last year, FIERCE: Pittsburgh celebrates individuals shaping the city’s Black queer culture today, affirming their place within a vibrant, evolving global archive.

For decades, Ajamu X has advocated for Black LGBTQ+ lives through intimate portraits that explore sensuality, gender, and queerness. Using nineteenth-century darkroom processes, he confronts the historical absence and reductive portrayal of Black, Brown, and queer bodies in photography.

This exhibition is dedicated in celebration of the life of Christopher Smith.

Produced with generous support from Duolingo.