Industry Insights: Shaniqwa Jarvis on empowerment, social change and giving back
Taking a ride with my best friend, 'Sleep to Dream' © Shaniqwa Jarvis.
Source:Industry Insights: Shaniqwa Jarvis on empowerment, social change and giving back
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Erykah Badu for 10 Magazine © Shaniqwa Jarvis.
Throughout her career, Jarvis has been intent on empowering the next generation of photographers. Doing this, alongside focused hard work and endurance, has led to the successes she enjoys today.
“I’ve always been obsessed with the idea that I can control my dreams,” Shaniqwa Jarvis tells me. We are discussing the genesis of her recent Sleep to Dream exhibition at New York SN37 Gallery. The show trades the figure for the haptic transporting the viewer into mysterious altered states. It marks a departure in Jarvis’ practice, best known for her dynamic fashion campaigns and emotional portraiture. Here, she presented rich, painterly landscapes that, at times, border abstraction.
“I have recurring dreams,” says Jarvis. “I can go to bed and dip back into dreams when I haven’t quite figured something out. Frequently, when I photograph, the things that really hit – I’ve seen them before. When pulling the show together, I had moments of – Did I take that? Was I lucid? What was going on here? I wouldn’t have been able to show this work without digging my heels in and genuinely believing in these things.”
“If I get mistreated, that means someone behind me who looks like me is going to get treated badly – that shit has been going on for way too long. […] Overcoming these obstacles allowed me to figure out what I needed to do.”
The New Yorker, who is now based in Los Angeles, spent the last 20 years grappling with and defying the profound racist and sexist values of the photo industry. Despite this, she has grafted her way into fashion and culture’s upper echelons, focusing her lens on Serena Williams, Erykah Badu and former US President Barack Obama while creating an ecosystem around her work that supports and emboldens the next generation. “There were so few people of colour in this industry when I started,” explains Jarvis. “It was difficult to find an ally. When you did, it was glorious – but it was rare. Overcoming all these different obstacles – being ignored, uplifted, and then ignored again – has empowered me to speak up and do whatever I want. I’ve been kicking open doors for 20 years. If I get mistreated, that means someone behind me who looks like me is going to get treated badly – that shit has been going on for way too long. […] Overcoming these obstacles allowed me to figure out what I needed to do.”
Photography has always been an integral part of Jarvis’s world. Growing up with her mother on New York’s Upper West Side, there “was never a time when a camera wasn’t present,” she recalls. Despite a short-lived deviation into teaching and psychology, Jarvis knew that a career in photography was her goal, but the journey was long and tough.
She’s taken on many adjacent roles along the way – interning for magazines, selling photos on the street and teaching kids how to swim to help pay her way through Parsons School of Art. From there, she worked as a photo editor, printer and producer to try to clear her college debts, all the while making images. It wasn’t easy for Jarvis, being one of few Black women in the industry, but her endurance and commitment to the work paid off.
“I’ve been able to escape a lot of the typical industry pressures because I chose not to put them on myself…I keep my head down and tend not to look around at what other people are doing – that compare and despair will fuck you up.”
“Weirdly, I’ve been able to escape a lot of the typical industry pressures because I chose not to put them on myself,” she says. “I sidestepped trends and didn’t limit myself to only working with this or that stylist of the moment. I just wanted to make work. […] I keep my head down and tend not to look around at what other people are doing – that ‘compare and despair’ will fuck you up.”
Publishing her self-titled book in 2017 was a turning point for Jarvis. It showcased two decades of her visceral portraits charting the quiet influence she had accrued. The book provided a sense of visibility and ownership over her style, connecting the dots for those who might be familiar with her work, but not know her name. Jarvis says the book “shifted her confidence” and enabled her to “reclaim space,” reminding her of the true value of her work.
Intent on giving back, Jarvis co-founded Social Studies with Angelo Baque and Something Special Studios in 2017. The multi-day experience, which first launched at Miami’s Art Basel, is an incubator for raw talent – offering workshops, talks and mentoring to underserved youth. Over the last five years, the trio have continued to refine and iterate on the program, including a special online edition during the pandemic. At its core, the project is about access. A pathway to dismantle gatekeeping and enable its participants to acquire an unprecedented and diverse expanse of knowledge and experience while personally connecting with the brands and artists they love.
“As Black and Brown people, we know we can’t reach forward without reaching back. Working with our community propels us all forward,” Jarvis says. “I think with Social Studies, in many ways, we were all trying to help our younger selves. It’s been rewarding to see that many of the companies we initially partnered with have taken the idea on. We pioneered this, and now people are doing it for themselves. For me, that’s the most important part – encouraging others to help empower people.”
Social Studies is on hiatus, but Jarvis continues to embody these values through other partnerships, including Nike’s Each One, Teach One and Kicking knowledge, a new initiative from Dover Street Market designed specifically to support Black and Latin American youth.
“In the photo world, we get so caught up with validation that unless this person says something’s great, the work’s not worthy. I’ve got to a place where my talent and confidence have aligned and allowed me to advocate for myself in a way that makes me feel good.”
Rather than having a closing party for Sleep to Dream, Jarvis hosted a family day offering tours of the show for children. She also donated the exhibition’s profits to the Harlem School of the Arts, to an after-school club she attended in her youth. Through these incremental gestures, Jarvis is creating a real-world impact; serving the local community in a quiet yet radical gesture of social change.
“I often tell creatives starting out; don’t focus on the people who don’t show up for you, focus on the ones that do. They are the ones that will help carry you and walk alongside you. Some places you go [in this industry] will be uncomfortable and challenging, and you will need them. In the photo world, we get so caught up with validation that unless this person says something’s great, the work’s not worthy. I’ve got to a place where my talent and confidence have aligned and allowed me to advocate for myself in a way that makes me feel good. It’s important to focus on where you want to be and what you want to do. Don’t sit back. Just go for it.”
