Solange continues to examine intimacy in transition through portraiture series

In her second installment with Document, the artist shares snapshots from the past three years taken by photographers Raphael Rios, Kobe Wagstaff, and Courtney Yates

It’s been four years since I asked photographer Rafael Rios to begin documenting me in the quiet moments.

Since then, I’ve made many transitions.
Transitions in life, and transitions in time.
I’ve spent a lot of time exploring the spaces I want to occupy; the places I want to call home; the work that, in twenty years, is going to matter the most to me; the artifacts I’d like to leave behind as proof I was here.

I see those questions and answers in this series of images. I see both the permanence and fleetingness of life. I can pinpoint the day, and relive the joy in my smile, or have compassion for the sorrow in my eyes. The way my body felt that day. I can feel the way that nature continues to hold me. The way that the objects around me inform where I am going. I can tell by my posture, or the tension in my lips, if I am feeling confident, or unsure. I can remember the conversations Rafael and I had that day, the dad jokes he would frequently share, and the laughter he captured in that moment. My relationship to time is changing. My anchors have changed. My body has changed. I am grateful these images have become markers of time.

I invited two other photographers, Kobe Wagstaff and Courtney Yates, to continue this practice with me, opening up new lines of trust and communication in image making.

Making iconography in images and creating new visual languages was once one of the most important things to me. It feels good in this moment to just make images as reminders of time.