This is the second set of photos taken by Baltimore Beat Director of Photography Schaun Champion’s students. Champion has taught classes at the Youth Art Institute at Morgan State University’s James E. Lewis Museum of Art since 2019. Participants range in age from 11 to 16. 

The lockdown stage of the pandemic meant that Champion had to be creative about how she taught — some of her classes were virtual, and when she did see the kids in person, they kept their photography sessions outside. 

These photos were taken at the U.S. Botanical Gardens in Washington, D.C., on April 23, 2023. Champion said the project is a way of exploring the feeling of reconnecting with society and nature.

“I felt like that was a good starting off point for reintegration into society,” she said. “Where are people going to kind of reconnect to nature again and be amongst each other?” (Lisa Snowden)

The post Photostory: Reemerging nature, part 2 appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

Baltimore Beat Director of Photography Schaun Champion has taught young people the technique and art of photography at the Youth Art Institute at Morgan State University’s James E. Lewis Museum of Art since 2019. Participants range in age from 11 to 16. 

The lockdown stage of the pandemic meant that Champion had to be creative about how she taught — some of her classes were virtual, and when she did see the kids in person, they kept their photography sessions outside. 

These photos were taken at Baltimore’s Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory on March 18. The series allows Champion to teach participants how to capture images, but it’s also a meditation on what it means to come out of the lockdown stage of the pandemic.

“I felt like that was a good starting off point for reintegration into society,” she said. “Where are people going to kind of reconnect to nature again and be amongst each other?” (Lisa Snowden)

The post Photostory: Reemerging nature appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

Irving Henry Webster Phillips Jr., the Baltimore Sun’s first Black news photographer, died December 22 at the age of 79. The images Phillips leaves behind capture Black life in Baltimore in its multiplicity. They are remarkably prescient, vibrant, dynamic, and joyful: children laughing and playing, a painted sign celebrating the release of Huey P. Newton, and a panoramic image of the Baltimore City Fair.

He was part of a legacy — the son of the late I. Henry Phillips Sr., a newspaper photographer at the Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper. His son, I. H. Webster Phillips III, is a Black artist and image maker in his own right.

Before his death, Phillips and his son founded the I. Henry Photo Project, a digital archive made from film scans of images snapped by the three men. The father and son also held workshops at libraries, nursing homes, and community centers, where participants could comb through the archives, helping identify who was in the images and actively connecting past and present to codify the archive. The archive currently holds over ten thousand images, and Phillips’ son is still adding to the collection. 

Baltimore Beat is focused on maintaining the traditions of the Black press. That means making space for our ancestors and preserving their histories, which are inextricably ours. To honor Phillips’ life and legacy, our Director of Photography Schaun Champion and I. H. Webster Phillips III curated this selection of his photos. In these pages, you’ll see some notable faces with ties to Baltimore, including Oprah Winfrey and Bea Gaddy. 

The post A Tribute to Irving Henry Webster Phillips Jr. appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

The post Holiday cards from Baltimore Beat readers appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

The Collective Minds Festival is a celebration of house music. In Baltimore, where dance music and Black club culture are so important, events like Collective Minds are a chance to celebrate. It’s always free and open to dancers of all ages. This year it was held on September 3 at Pearlstone Retreat Center. This year’s event included performances by Ultra Nate, DJ Biskit, Uzoma, and Dawn Tallman. 

This celebration marked Collective Minds’ nineteenth anniversary, and was the first in-person version of the festival since COVID-19 shut everything down more than two years ago. In the past, it’s been held at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Druid Hill Park.

Collective Minds Festival is Baltimore house music’s family reunion, a chance to see people who look, dance, and think like you. That is especially important because dance venues where house music used to thrive, like the Paradox, are gone. 

Photos by Schaun Champion and Cameron Snell.

The post Scenes from this year’s Collective Minds festival appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

On June 2, hairstylist Brittney Evans hosted a Daddy Daughter Hair Workshop. The event, which was held at MAP Technologies (229 Park Ave., [240] 389-4263, map-technologies.business.site) was intended to help dads learn the basics of taking care of their daughter’s hair.

Evans told the group she organized the event because her daughter’s dad used to struggle so much taking care of her daughter’s hair. The five dads in attendance learned to slick back their daughters’ hair into a ponytail and then adorn it with a headband (“headbands fix everything,” Evans told the group). The event was catered by Hennrietta Ott of Baltimore-based Hott Creations, so the families could snack on cupcakes, candy, and sandwiches while they learned. Photographer Schaun Champion documented the event. (Lisa Snowden-McCray)

The post Photos From Daddy Daughter Hair Workshop appeared first on Baltimore Beat.