Throughout the last 30 years, my photography has explored many facets of the Black community. My current work is an extension of and expansion on this trajectory, adding to the collected journal of the Black experience in this country. It involves the appropriation of photographs my father, Richard Tarver, produced in the 1940s and 50s to construct contemporary images that comment on the pervasive legacy of racial strife in this country. The more than 300 photographs and over 1000 black and white negatives he produced of the Black residents in the small Oklahoma town of Fort Gibson represent a time when Jim Crow laws were still in place. While those laws have since been abolished, their legacy lives on. These reimagined images engage a troubling past with an equally problematic present.

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This series was awarded a solo exhibition in January 17 - March 21, 2020 as part of The Print Center's 94th ANNUAL, one of the most prestigious and oldest competitions in the United States.