January 6, 2020
By Arabella Breck
In the 1970s and 1980s, Chicago-based photographer Valeria “Mikki” Ferrill captured a series of photos called “The Garage.” The photographs in this series captured Black people living in Chicago dancing and partying, looking carefree and joyful. One photograph was of a woman dancing, another of someone giving a person a piggyback ride and another of people playing music.
Ferrill is part of the history of Black photographers in Chicago who used their work to document the richness of their communities whether that wealth is art, music, gatherings or family. Qurissy Lopez, a photographer and art director raised in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, is one person carrying on the practice of documenting the cultural wealth that exists in the Black community today.
Lopez’s first solo photography show was focused around something she considers a Black heirloom—Black hair. The exhibit, called “Back Home,” was shown during the summer of 2018 at the Young Chicago Authors gallery space, located at 1180 N. Milwaukee Ave. Photos of the women in Lopez’s family doing each other’s hair hung on the walls along with an excerpt of a poem called “why you cannot touch my hair” by Chicago author Eve Ewing. Later, photos from the series were shown with AV Exchange at REVIVE magazine.
The success of those showcases inspired her to expand the series, Lopez said. It turned into a project called Durag Chats, with creative strategist Austin Sellers, in which she photographed Black men with their hair done in different styles.
Lopez sat down with City Bureau to talk about how she defines Black wealth: traditions, family, music and building a future where young creators can thrive. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
“Mom forming an afro puff on DaMya” (Photo: Courtesy of Qurissy Lopez)
On “Back Home”
The photo exhibit is called “Back Home” and it is a visual story about Black hairstyling as an heirloom being carried through generations of Black women. It initially started out with another project for the Black Girl Magic Anthology. We had a performance for Printers Row Lit Fest where Jamila Woods sought out other creatives to attach to poets, so that while these speakers were reciting their poems, there was a DJ or there was a dancer or photography. They sent me a couple of poems and Eve’s was the one I chose because I just immediately saw images in my head for it. I fell in love with [the photos] and so I was like, ‘Yo, Eve, I have to do something with these,’ and she was very supportive.
I think it’s taken a new life now that I’ve sat with it and the first exhibit is done, I feel like I can really put my narrative rather than Eve’s narrative.
I definitely made it purposeful to have dark-skinned women be featured. It was important for me to say, ‘Look at this very Black grandma and she’s lost some hair, she’s going gray and she has her wig.’ That’s also part of the aging of Black women. It was very important for me to just show what those women look like and not just their hair.
On the importance of Black hairstyling
We all know it, but it isn’t necessarily said that Black hairstyling is a traditional heirloom. But we treat it like it’s sacred and we’re taught very young to like, don’t let a lot of people play in your hair and you need to keep it kept in all these ways and, you know, the different styles that we have come up with throughout all of these years. So, I think saying it out loud is building on top of that foundation of wealth.
The braids hold so much power. They’re ancient. I think the fact that that is something that we have kept thousands of years is a display of wealth. Like old money. Everyone has kept this tradition up no matter where you went, how far away from home you got. I think the fact that these styles have lived so long is our display of wealth.
On music as inheritance
How music is in my life in particular is very, very cool and I think that’s probably why music inspires me so much. My dad is a huge hip-hop and house head, so a lot of my memories are attached to hip-hop and house and they are two of my very favorite genres in life. But my mom introduced him to jazz and soul and gospel. So, those songs sound like home. Those songs sound like my family.
When you hear particular songs, the whole room lights up. I think it’s because we’ve all had a few very similar experiences in life with music. For instance, at AfroPunk, the DJ stops and plays the song, “Never Would’ve Made It.” That song plays and the whole place goes up. We didn’t all go to the same church, we didn’t all have the same family, but we all know this song is good as hell.
That’s why I think music is very sacred to us. It reminds us of joy and even a sad song, it keeps me moving for sure.
“Mom braiding Nanna's hair” (Photo: Courtesy of Qurissy Lopez)
On building the future
“Back Home” more than anything helped my family, like younger cousins, realize that they can do that. They can take a creative route.
One of my little cousins, she was just like, ‘Oh my god this is so cool, like I didn’t know you did this.’ They already have more access to opportunities than I did and that’s how it’s supposed to be as generations go on you get more and more and more access. I remember when I realized I could be a photographer and I wasn’t 10 years old.
My goal in life is to put the West Side on the map, because a lot of the [creative] scene comes from the South Side. There are plenty of creatives from out west and there has always been. People focus on the South Side where the larger community is.
I’m really, really just trying to get the folks that are unseen right now in the forefront, and I think that’s why I have to do what I do. Whether I’m super huge in life or not—cause I don’t even know if that’s what I want—but just putting more people from where I’m from out here.
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