BHM SPOTLIGHT #7: DAESHA DEVÓN HARRIS — Photographer, Artist, Educator, Community Engager
Where does one begin when celebrating one of Saratoga Springs’ most vibrant “jewels” … Daesha DevónHarris? Let’s start with “home” … the very intersection of Harris’s artistry, teaching and community action. This recurring theme is evident throughout her deeply haunting, breathtaking photographic work that weaves “found” stories and current lives together, while exploring the impact of the past on those living in the present. It is also where her voice, efforts, and presence quietly engage, tirelessly mobilize, and creatively amplify “a call to action” for a better future for us all.
A “cultural preservationist and youth advocate,’ Harris has been active in her hometown for many years. A member of the Teaching Faculty for the Storytellers’ Institute at Skidmore College, she invited her Skidmore MDOCS students to document and then exhibit MLK Saratoga’s silent march down Broadway to honor Dr. King on the 50th anniversary of his assassination. She was instrumental in generating the ‘Shine a Light on Darryl’ campaign, rallying a re-newed effort to bring forward awareness and justice around the death of 19 year old Darryl Mount in 2013. Most recently, Harris was served on the 2020-2021 Saratoga Springs Police Reform Task Force (see BHM #6) — an extraordinary commitment of energy, resolve, and collective navigation to render 50 actionable recommendations to re-invision Saratoga Spring’s Police and Public Safety, while meeting Gov. Cuomo’s deadline mandate. (Reinvention Plan: Toward a Community Centered Justice Initiative)
Harris is a New York Foundation of the Arts Fellow, whose award-winning work has been featured by En Foco, Sky Gallery, and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. In 2019, the Smithsonian Magazine highlighted her exhibit “Just Beyond the River” in the article, Daesha Devón Harris Combines Oral History and Antique Portraits to Tell a Story of Loss and Hope: These layered works testify to African-American History. Last year, she was acknowledged as “one of America’s leading artists of colour, … among an elite selection of multi-media artists to be awarded” by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 2020-2021. Ms. Harris has also been recently named to UK-based Hundred+ Heroines, a global organization dedicated to the “universal recognition of women in photography” (past, present, and future), which currently celebrates 200 “heroines” — professional women and non-binary photographers.
Reflecting on her recent exhibit “Just Beyond the River” and the Negro hymn the collection was named for … Ms. Harris says that both are “about freedom being within our reach, but escaping us still.” Her’s is the courage to illuminate the erased, the forgotten, the disconnected … and that’s an on-going story that has awakening impact for us all.
http://www.daeshadevonharris.com
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