Photographer Jay Blacks Captures Over 80 Portraits of Milwaukeeans in One Day

Maria / 2 years
August 6, 2024
0
3 min read

One Day to Get to 100 Photos

Jay Blacks didn’t set out to create a huge community impact, he just wanted to finish renovating his family home in Milwaukee that he inherited and practice his skills behind the camera. Being a natural-born creative, Blacks used his family home’s backyard to take 100 pictures in one day of the Milwaukee community.

Blacks’ project “1 Day, 100 Portraits” was an invitation for his subjects, who came from his network and their friends, to come, catch up, and enjoy getting their picture taken, just for the sake of practicing his skills in portraiture.

Jay Blacks, a Milwaukee photographer who captured over 80 photos in a day. (Picture by Jay Blacks)

Black’s childhood home has been in his family since 1954 when his great-grandmother purchased the home. He spent the first 25 years of his life at the home and it’s the place most of his relatives know as home. This sentimental attachment gave the project a deeper meaning after the project was completed. Blacks has lived in various parts of the country and has described the project as a reintroduction into Milwaukee’s communities through the lens of his camera.

“Bringing the community into that space, especially people I care about, have been in my network for years, see me in a space that feels like home was important for me,” said Blacks. “It was very powerful to see how community worked in that moment, and it wasn’t necessarily anything else other than ‘Hey, come get your photo taken’.”

The original goal of the project was to get to 100 portraits taken but over 80 were taken. Each portrait was completed within 5 minutes.

“I really wanted something that would really allow me to catch up with my immediate network and take their photos,” said Blacks. He also added it was a great opportunity to show people the work he’s been doing on the house.