Tender photographs capturing queer Black experience on view at NYC bus stops
Clifford Prince King. “dante, (capoeira),” 2023. Archival inkjet print. Image: © Courtesy the artist; STARS Gallery, Los Angeles; and Gordon Robichaux, New York. Photo: Nicholas Knight, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY. Presented by Public Art Fund as part of “Clifford Prince King: Let me know when you get home,” an exhibition on 300 JCDecaux bus shelters and 30 newsstands in New York, Chicago, and Boston, February 21-May 26, 2024.
New York City-based photographer Clifford Prince King shares a deeply personal glimpse into his life in his first-ever public art exhibition. Presented by the Public Art Fund, “Let me know when you get home,” features 13 new photographs King captured during his travels in the summer of 2023, providing an intimate look into the artist’s sources of “comfort, companionship, and love.” The exhibition is currently on view through May 26 at 300 bus shelters and 30 newsstands across New York City, Chicago, and Boston.
A self-taught photographer, King captures his relationships and experiences as a queer Black man. While growing up in Arizona, King rarely saw his own identity represented in TV or films, which motivated him to create personal images that others in search of belonging could relate to.
“Let me know when you get home” features images King captured during his artist residencies at BOFFO on Fire Island, Light Work in Syracuse, and Eighth House in Vermont, as well as his travels through the Cayman Islands and São Paulo.
During this period, King aimed to capture his sources of comfort, companionship, and love, resulting in a collection of images that show a tender display of nature, intimacy, the “act of claiming space,” and the significance of creating a home.
The photographs were captured using a 35mm film camera, giving the images a timeless, grainy quality. King utilized the warm natural light of the summer season and captured his subjects in poses of vulnerability, affection, and deep thought.
King’s images feature a capoeira dancer mid-handstand on a rooftop in São Paulo, a couple standing together by a waterfront in the rain, and two lovers kissing while handcuffed on the side of the road illuminated by car headlights.
“This series of works came about during a time in my life when the people, places, and pieces organically fell together to form a new sense of home,” King said. “Displayed on public bus shelters and newsstands throughout the winter time, these photographs offer a breath of fresh air, surrender, and release, providing diverse audience members with warmth, tenderness, and an encouragement to embrace and heal from the past.”
The exhibition’s title has different meanings connected to experiences of affection and shelter. The phrase is also said out of care and concern, especially for loved ones who are members of the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities in which safety is an ever-present issue.
It also plays upon the exhibition’s presentation on bus shelters, sites for people traveling to and from their homes. Finally, it represents the desire to find a community and belonging during periods in life when things seem uncertain.
“‘Let me know when you get home’ marks a nomadic period in the artist’s life when the people that surrounded him temporarily became his home. The series serves as a visual journey tracing King’s summer travels, cumulatively revealing a meditative self-portrait,” Public Art Fund Adjunct Curator Katerina Stathopoulou said.
“Presented larger-than-life on hundreds of JCDecaux bus shelters and newsstands, King’s arresting portraits gaze directly at the viewer, diminishing the space between audience and subject.”
In August 2022, the Public Art Fund presented an exhibition by Wendy Red Star, also displayed on bus shelters across the five boroughs. Called “Wendy Red Star: Travels Pretty,” the exhibition featured 12 paintings inspired by “parfleches,” vibrantly painted rawhide bags created by certain nomadic tribes of the Great Plains.
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