While going through Rashod Taylor’s ongoing project, Little Black Boy, I was captivated by this particular image from 2020. The self portrait captures the artist and his son with their eyes closed, in a mid-afternoon rest.

The lines that comprise the image are minimal, and I am struck with Taylor’s ability to use just a few simple elements to communicate so profoundly. The frame is stacked with squares. In addition to creating satisfying and balanced visual layers, emotionally, the shape symbolizes security and stability.

Two thirds of the composition is filled with the rectangular negative space of the blanket. All of the ​“personhood” is concentrated in the left third of the image where father and child’s heads tenderly meet. Taylor and his son are not only bound together by the peacefulness of their sleep, but also in the shape they create within the photograph.

- Mia Dalglish

See more of Rashod Taylor’s work HERE