“Anisha” by Ebony Blevins, 2020, cyanotype on arnhem cotton rag, 12×18
ABOUT THIS PIECE:
“I’m still building this series of profiles, but I love how the light touches the facial features of my subjects, revealing the subtle details in the highlights. That’s always my favorite part. And I love showing the beauty and uniqueness of all of the people I photograph.”
ARTIST BIO:
Since the age of 5, Ebony L. Blevins knew that she would be an artist when she grew up. At age 8, she began her journey with photography in a 4‐H Club in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. She won her first award, the top prize of a Rosette, in 4‐H at age 12 with a photo essay called “A Day at the Zoo”, shot entirely with a 110 film camera. At age 14, her grandfather gave her her first 35mm camera and she, alongside her dad, took her first photography class, a night class for adult extended learning, where she would learn the fundamentals of the craft.
Through high school, Blevins was on the yearbook staff and occasionally photographed random people and other subjects. Initially an art major at Arkansas State University, during her second year in school, a professor told her art wasn’t for her and that she should change her major. So she changed to journalism with an emphasis on photojournalism. Again, she would provide pictures to the yearbook and became the sports photographer for the student newspaper.
In a one‐day class given by Curtis Steele covering the analog cyanotype printing technique, Blevins would become mesmerized by the hands-on process, but it would be years later before she dove deeper into the alternative photography printing method. She completed her degree and began working as a staff photographer for the Arkansas Democrat‐Gazette.
After leaving the newspaper, Blevins struck out on her own. She won photography awards from the Society of Professional Journalists as a student photographer and years later as a professional freelance photographer. She now specializes in a photojournalistic style of photography, loving the unexpected action of live concerts and sports. She has documented protests since 2001, with extensive work during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. More recently, Blevins is now converting her digital images to analog cyanotype prints by hand and is experimenting with combining the medium with other dyes and techniques.
See Blevins’s work on display in the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center’s Juneteenth exhibits, locally at Hearne Fine Art, online at mscameralady.com and on Instagram at @mscameralady.