jaleel marques porcha | ig: @jaleelmarquesporcha | website: jaleelporcha.co
(they/them) hails from Paterson, New Jersey—a predominately black, brown and non-white city that defined the type of community that makes them feel seen and at home. Jaleel currently attends Rhode Island School of Design where they study photography and sculpture.
During their sophomore year, shortly after the COVD-19 pandemic began, they arrived in Providence, Rhode Island with a sense of frustration and confusion. This new place was not reminiscent of that community they had back home, and it created questions that needed answers, and an introspectiveness that allowed them to use the camera as their tool to find them.
These images are from their newest series called We Outside: Unpacking and Retelling. Jaleel talked about a universal hype around the phrase “we outside” over the past year and has reimagined its meaning by way of the representation of their Black community through portraiture.
“What does it mean to need to be outside?
To resist and retaliate this natural cause of you risking your life to experience and learn.”
Jaleel has a deep familial love for the subjects they photograph, whether they are strangers orpeople they know from home—you can’t decipher this difference because the labor of love flows through each one all the same.
Through the coalescence of photographs from their hometown, and new images they are making in Providence, Jaleel is telling a story of survival and creating an archive of Black life.
Season Three of PhotoLounge Presents is curated by Rebecca Arthur.
PLP is a curated series where guest curators turn the lens on emerging photographers and provide a glimpse of their oeuvre and what inspires them. This season will continue to be unveiled twice a month on our Gallery Blog and Instagram over the coming months.