This episode of Just Can't Not features an in-depth conversation with Adam Eaton (@adameaton.art), a local artist and art director, who discusses his newly released photography book titled "Black is Beautiful." This book encapsulates the essence of over 70 local models from Rochester, New York, showcasing more than 250 photographs that celebrate the diversity and beauty of the Black community.

You can learn more and buy the book at adameaton.com.

References:

adameaton.com

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Well, that music means it's time for another episode of Just Can't Not.

I'm your host, Chris Lindstrom and I'm here today with a guest.

Guest, why don't you introduce yourself?

Hi, I'm Adam Eaton, local artist and art director of Adam Eaton Art LLC.

Yeah, so Adam Eaton, go to adameaton.com to check out all of the images and availability for what we're talking about today, which is a book of photography.

What's the name of the book, Adam?

So my new art book is entitled Black is Beautiful.

It chronicles the beautiful people that Live in Rochester, New York.

Over 70 local models or community members are featured in the book and it has over 250 photos.

So I mean I know you as, I know you as a photographer and I know you a lot because I've known your brother for, geez, over 10 years, Calvin Eaton, from his work as the gluten free chef.

If you want to check out my episodes with Calvin, you can look at those in history.

But you and I haven't had a lot of conversations, but I'm super interested to learn about this whole process.

So when you were, when you were thinking about making a book, how did you decide on, how did you decide on the topic you wanted to do?

And I know you know portrait photography has been a focus of yours.

I've seen a lot of your work.

So how did you decide that this was specifically what you wanted to do with, with your book?

Because it's a lot of work to make a book.

It is.

It has been about five or six years in the making.

After years of dealing with depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts.

I knew that I needed to do something creative with my life.

And so I decided to take a class at one of the local art organizations, Flower City Arts.

I wanted to take the ceramics course actually, but that course was sold out.

So I instead took their photography course.

And so that's how I started learning photography.

I started connecting with the art community in Rochester, New York.

I started meeting people in the community, artists, models.

I learned early on that I like taking photos of people and capturing just like the inner spirit of people in our local community.

So I began taking photos of people in my studio.

A community member allowed me to have access to a studio space.

And so that's really where the journey of my art career and like the idea of Black is Beautiful came from.

Just learning about the stories of local community members and how they've dealt with like racism and discrimination.

Yeah.

So I'm kind of intrigued.

So, like, you were going for pottery right away, and that was the first thought when you got into work and try photography.

What was it about photography that grabbed you in a way that maybe you didn't originally expect because you were going for pottery?

Like.

Like, what about photography grabbed you?

I believe that photography has a more instant quality to art.

When I decided that I wanted to practice an art or I needed to do something creative, I knew photography had like a very immediate feeling to it.

And also I think initially I liked the idea that photography can connect you.

Connect.

Connect you with people.

So I've learned that a lot of people like to have their photo taken, or many people do.

And so it actually can build friendships and community, having that bond with art, photography, creativity.

And I think there's also something special about a lot of people have a reticence to having their photo taken.

They're self conscious.

They don't.

They're not confident in the way they think they're perceived.

And there's.

There's a great joy to providing that, you know, providing a great portrait of somebody and you see them in the way that maybe other people see them.

Or sometimes it's this way that they don't think of themselves as true.

So I've learned that photographing people in the community, that a lot of the people that I felt that were some of the most beautiful are actually some of the most self conscious.

And doing research on that idea, I found that that's actually true throughout America because we live in a country where there's so much discrimination and racism.

I think people have sometimes a misrepresentation of themselves and like beauty standards skew away from people who are of color.

So I believe that the work I'm creating is important because it gives people a lens and to see themselves more clearly and to have a better representation of black beauty.

Well, and that's, I mean, you know, that's something where so Lunchador has been involved with in this moment for a while.

We've been producing their books as audiobooks both for accessibility and for entertainment.

Because, you know, listening to books can be fun sometimes.

But something that's always popped for me is when you get to really dive into somebody through photography, you get to really see different aspects of them through a series of pictures, not just a single portrait where you get to see them in different environments and do that when you were thinking about, like, for the people in this book, when you say 250 photographs, are they of different people?

250 different people or multiples of some of the same people?

Yes.

So the book has about 70 community members in total.

And so it expands five years of my creating.

And so the lighting style that I've developed actually I believe looks best with the.

The darker the skin, the better.

I really believe that.

So, so just over the past five or six years, I've developed this style with lighting and I wanted to just feature the people who are a lot of times overlooked in our community.

Well, it's really interesting about the lighting because that was exactly the next question I was gonna bring up because looking at some of the demo images on adameaton.com where you can take a look and also order Black is beautiful.

I was struck by the lighting and how, how much detail and how much, how much vitality your lighting offers to the variety of different, you know, black skin tones that are in, that are in your images.

Because it's not like, like you're doing the whole gamut, the whole spectrum of, of skin tones through here from, you know, lighter to, you know, more.

I don't, I don't know the term for the different spectrum of skin tones, but definitely from, you know, darker to lighter.

And you're capturing a vitality in all of the different range, which is a lot of preparation and a really keen eye to detail.

When you were coming up with your lighting, you know, and working through that, talk about the technicals of that for a little bit because I'm intrigued because it's a lot of work to make that this striking.

Oh, thank you.

I really appreciate that.

So I think, I really believe that I've been very, I've noticed that I've been very sensitive to light ever since I was a young person.

So I've definitely, I think photography was a good creative outlet for me because in photography you need light, of course.

And so I've learned that light has color, light has different clarity, different textures, those ideas.

And then with the modifiers of lighting equipment, you can like change the light and shadows.

So photography was a great place for me to start learning about those ideas.

And because I started photography just a few years ago and because I feel that I've been self taught mostly through this whole time, it's really just been experimenting and like working with so many people in the community, I've been able to experiment with light, experiment with different colors of light and different shadows and textures.

And so I really do thank the community for giving me the opportunity to be able to, you know, just practice and to learn and to grow and to make mistakes with lighting.

And so it's really been, like, a labor of love just learning about people and lighting and photography equipment and studio spaces and how light bounces off different surfaces.

So it's definitely been a labor of love, for sure.

And I love that attitude of experimentation and learning on your own.

I mean, to be honest, that's how we developed this whole area here.

None of this was prescribed by anybody else.

We worked through it and tried, tried different things and found out what worked and.

And, you know, learn some painful lessons when something didn't work quite the way we expected.

I mean, I'd love to hear about, like, so during that process, do you remember one that didn't go well and, like, something that you learned from that.

Do you mean like a photography session?

Yeah, it's either a session or lighting or just something that just like, during that whole process, right when you're.

You're testing and you're learning about the craft, like, what were some of the things that, like, they didn't stop you, but, like, oh, they forced you to learn something new.

So very early on when I.

So I started doing photography with my iPhone, so at the beginning, I couldn't afford, like, a professional camera.

And I learned that at the time it was like iPhone 11.

I read an article that that iPhone actually was pretty good at photography.

You know, for sure, a lot of my early images are on the iPhone.

And so when I finally did get a donated camera from a community member after posting on Facebook, I just posted on Facebook, like, I need a camera.

Does anyone have a camera that they could provide or let me borrow?

I want to learn or grow in my photography practice.

And so someone messaged me on Instagram and said that they would like to donate a photography camera.

So I was learning photography, taking the class at Flower City, learning the new camera.

And so I learned so much about, like, aperture, focus, and a big thing that.

To go on with your question, the idea of, like, light has color.

So with the iPhone, that doesn't really come up a lot.

But when you're using a professional camera, you actually have to adjust the color of the light.

And so there.

There is early images when you can definitely tell, like, the color is either too orange or too blue.

And I was still learning some of the colors were, like, green.

And I used to be like, how.

Why is this happening?

You know, like.

But I was still learning and practicing and growing.

So a lot of.

There's some images that I took in those early days where you, like, have to go back and completely edit and change, like, the color balance.

But for me, it was all.

It's all fun, and it's all part of the process.

I liked.

I actually liked a lot of the time I spent in the early days learning photography because it was very new for me.

It was very fun.

It was like.

I was, like, obsessed with it.

Every other day, I would take photos and be in the studio and be up all night editing those ideas.

Yeah, I don't think there's a way to get great at something unless you have a little bit of that obsession, you know, a little bit of that.

I can't get enough of this thing.

Right.

Because that's excitement.

You can't make something great without having a little bit of that sometimes.

And, yes, the work is what makes something truly great.

But you don't get there unless you have that.

That intense excitement about something sometimes.

Exactly.

I.

A lot of times miss those early years when I was like, I'm still passionate about my art and create and creating, of course, but in those very early years when it was, like, new for me, and it was like I didn't know exactly what I was doing, but I was having so much fun and connecting with people, and there were.

There was, like, no, like, pressure, or there was no, like, expectation.

And so I could experiment and change the light and do things and make mistakes.

And I felt like there was no.

No limit to my creativity.

That is a special time, right.

When you're.

When you have that open world of learning.

Like, I remember when I was getting into food, and I remember trying Thai food for the first time, and it was just this revelatory thing.

And sometimes it's hard to feel that.

It's hard to feel that now when you know.

When you know more, when you've done so much more and understand so much more about your craft or about different things.

Have you had something recently that excited you, that got you, you know, that got you to feel some of those feelings again?

So the process of creating the book has actually been that for me, because it's new.

So creating the Black is Beautiful series after all these years has been great.

Yeah.

So creating the Black is Beautiful series after all these years has been really great.

And so now taking all of that work that I've built over the past few years and then making a book is a whole nother process.

The process of, like, curating images, going through and like picking your favorites and making sure that the.

Although the book is a photography book and it's 250 photos, I do believe that it tells a story with photography.

So that was a process in itself.

Using the photography from all my many years of work and then trying to create a, a story with images has been a process of a new part of creativity that I've never had the opportunity to learn until now.

Yeah, because I mean, you're looking at multiple different subjects, how do you order them, how do you make those choices, and then looking at some of these on a screen, that's one thing.

But then making a choice of how is it printed or what kind of paper, what kind of ink are you using to make this, you know, make this photography book, you know, this coffee table kind of book.

When you're thinking about that, how did you learn the.

How did you learn what you wanted?

How did you learn what you didn't like, you know, from how you wanted it made?

So the book is self published by me.

I've been working with different organizations that print books and like learning about the different paper and like you said, the different print styles, different inks you can use, different qualities of paper, hardcover or soft cover.

So that's been another creative process that I've had to learn.

It's been really fun to like, you know, work with different printers or different organizations that can help you to like.

I've actually even been working with a designer to help me to like lay out the book and format it.

That's a whole process.

Shout out to Marco Vesuk.

So he's actually credited in the book because I learned that even though I have these images and they're like all my work, the idea of creating the book is actually a collaborative process.

So I've been working with Marco to help me to like the layout of the, like the beginning text, the dedication pages.

That's a whole nother art that I'm not like an expert at.

So even the book has become a collaborative process as well.

Yeah.

And I think that's something that a lot of people who do their first, who do their first book learn.

I've heard, you know, heard some podcasts about somebody creating a cookbook for the first time where they have all these recipes, they have all these ideas.

But how do you test, how do you develop?

How do you make it readable?

Because there's expectations, right?

People have expectations of how a recipe is laid out or how a book is laid out like that.

How did you, did you find that you were hewing to the general style of this kind of book, that you were trying something different.

You know, did you learn things from looking at other books that live in this world, not necessarily of the subject, but as, you know, find photography books?

So I didn't do a lot of research in the idea of, like, researching other photography books.

I kind of wanted just to make the most beautiful book that I could.

You know, I love that.

And a book that one person told me that they bought the book, they said that they've never had anything like this in their life.

Like a book filled with photos of black people.

And I guess the style that I create and like, you were talking about the lighting and the colors is different than maybe other styles of photography.

And I really do believe that the book tells a story.

Even though they're different people, different colors, different backgrounds, it really does tell a story about Rochester and how diverse our community is.

And so putting that together to make the most beautiful product that I could.

So that people, when they read the book, they really feel that this represents them, you know, or this, or they see themselves in it, or they see their family member in it.

One of the models that I have been developing since starting the book process is, you are a work of art.

And so that's what I really want the book to speak to people.

I want people to feel like when they look through this book that they can see themselves in the book.

Yeah.

Because that was.

That was kind of what I was interested in as well, is tone.

Right.

Because it can just be beauty for beauty's sake.

And that.

That's great.

There's nothing wrong with that.

And that's an amazing art form in of itself.

But when I see, like, when I see your, you know, the model that is, you know, in your, you know, front and center.

On your webpage, Adam eaton.com where you can buy black is beautiful.

But when I look at that.

Look at that picture, it just has so much warmth.

Can you talk.

Can you talk about that?

Both that, that model and when you were making that shot?

Because so I'm going to describe it very briefly.

So this shot is, you know, it's a, you know, a side just angled away, angled towards the camera.

It has these beautiful pops of red, that accent, you know, this, you know, medium plus dark skin.

And it's so warm and vibrant and lively.

I'm just fascinated with that picture.

Talk about that model for a second because that is one.

A stunning picture, but I think a great one as your front and center thing on Your webpage.

Yeah.

So that model on the COVID of the book, Black is Beautiful, her name is Awaldu, and she's an immigrant, actually, from African country into Rochester with her family.

She grew up.

She grew up in Africa, but then immigrated to Rochester.

And so that just speaks to the idea of how diverse Rochester is.

And so she actually is the model.

That.

Like, started the idea of the series of Black is Beautiful.

So while I was doing her photo shoot with her, we were talking, and she was talking about how her skin is very black and very dark.

And she was actually made fun of or bullied or discriminated against throughout her life about that.

And even from people close to her, like her mother and family would say that your skin is black, your skin is black as a negative.

And I told her while we were talking that black is beautiful, and that's where the idea sparked.

Yeah, it's.

It's hard when you see an image like that, when you hear that story, not to feel emotion because, like, you captured such a.

Such a vibrant beauty in her.

And I have to imagine that, you know, her working with you and seeing some of the outputs of this has to be, you know, has to have some emotion to it, too.

Yes.

So a lot of the people that are featured in the book, a lot of the models that are featured in the book feel the same way as her, that throughout their lives, they've been bullied or made fun of how dark their skin is, or just being a black person in general.

And so I saw that the theme of Black is Beautiful doesn't just affect our community locally, but it affects so many communities or so many people across the nation.

And so I really believe that this book is timely, especially in the climate of how America is being portrayed currently in the news media, that the idea that black is beautiful can actually help to change people's lives, for people to have.

Have a book that really speaks to them and shows them that no matter what skin tone you are, no matter where you're from, whether you're immigrant or born in America, you are beautiful, and you deserve a chance to be seen and heard and respected and appreciated.

Yeah, I think that, you know, that's the attitude that I've always thought of, you know, and again, I always think of things through the lens of food, but that when I get the pleasure that I have the distinct joy of trying and trying to understand different cuisines from all around the world, the thing I think of most is how much they are our neighbors.

They all want comfort, and we all want to have amazing food.

And we all want to be seen.

We all want to be seen for who we are, and maybe not how we think we're perceived, but how we all want to be seen.

And that is.

That's the joy of this.

This is also about black joy, and not just, you know, the real negativity of how perception can be sometimes, but this is about joy and what a great thing to bring both to the subjects and to the people reading it.

From the beginning of my artistic journey of being an artist and creating, I always knew that I wanted to create, like you're saying, joy.

I wanted people to be happy when they saw my work.

I actually did experiment in the beginning years with the idea of, like, gun violence or racism and discrimination, but showing the negative side of that.

And the response I got from, like, Instagram and social media was that it actually caused division.

It caused people to feel negative feelings.

And just one.

I posted one image of that years ago, and I didn't like that.

I knew from that, from that very moment, I knew that I never wanted my art to create feelings of negativity.

And so I doubled down on the idea that my art will always focus on positivity, happiness, joy, beauty, and making people feel good about themselves.

Yeah.

And that's not to say I think that it's one of those fascinating gray areas of life that.

Yes.

And I think for me, I often focus on that as well as I focus on positivity, because I struggle with positivity.

I struggle to see the world positively and being around people that are trying to make their community better.

Even in the small C community.

Right.

Because we can't change everything, but we can make our small C community better.

We can make the people that we affect with your art or with communication.

We can do something that's positive.

And, you know, the thing that's ringing to me in my head is for me, I struggle with positivity because I see the world.

So I see the world for its faults and many things like that.

When.

When you're creating these things and you look back at the version of you that started photography as somebody who's working through depression and, you know, an ideation and other things like that.

What.

When you've ended up creating something like this, you know, and I'm sure you've done other work too.

Right?

You have to do the work to work through many of those things.

When you look back at that version of you who was starting this journey, what would you want to tell, like, the younger Adam Eaton from that time.

What I would like to tell my younger self is that you are beautiful.

I think I've always struggled with the feeling of being self conscious and not just appreciating being a human.

I really believe that all humans are beautiful and that all humans deserve to be happy.

And so my journey of art and creating have really been a healing journey for myself internally, for the idea of like loving yourself and being able to accept every part of yourself, the good things about yourself, but even maybe the flaws potentially.

So that's really what I really want this book.

Black is beautiful to do for others.

I want them to see the pages of this book, and to me, it shows all the parts of people.

It shows their skin and the pores and their scars.

You can see that all through the book.

Maybe things that people would maybe call imperfections.

The book shows it and zooms in on that and makes it into something beautiful.

So I really believe that all people should have the opportunity to feel that way, to feel that they.

That they love themselves, even though that a lot of times the world tells them that they shouldn't.

Yeah, but that's.

And I love that you mentioned that too, that it's, you know, it's.

You're not airbrushing everything over.

This isn't.

This isn't about perfection, you know, that ideal perfection that people talk about.

This is.

This is the life lived.

Right.

Like, if you don't have something that affected you, you know, and maybe some negativity and positivity, but if you haven't lived right, you.

You don't have any of those things.

You don't have the mental, you know, the mental scars and the mental ups and downs.

You don't have.

You don't have some of those physical things if you haven't lived.

But I love that.

Yeah, that's what you're capturing.

Yes, I love that.

My art really captures every part of the human world and the human life.

There are scars, there are blemishes, you know, parts of your body that you may not like.

And the book shows all of those things and it really promotes the idea that all of those things are beautiful.

They all the parts of you that make you.

You are what also make you beautiful.

Yeah, I kind of want to leave off with.

I'm interested.

Is there, is there another model where you have like a story of how you got in touch with them?

That kind of, that kind of struck you because, I don't know, I find that sometimes, you know, I gravitate to certain places where the story has meant a lot to me.

And like, I love the food, but I love the story just as much as the result of it.

I would say a collective theme or story that has come from many of the models is that so when I was learning photography and practicing the art of photography, I would just connect with people and I would message them on social media, like, I love your look or I think you're, you're beautiful.

Really.

And I would like to photograph you to practice photography.

And a lot of people would respond with the idea that like, really me, like, you think I'm beautiful, you, you think that I have something special.

And, and I think a lot of the models or a lot of people in general feel that way.

Like you've noticed me, you think I'm, you think I can be on the COVID or you believe I can be photographed or that I'm good looking enough to be a part of that world of creativity.

And so that's a theme that I've learned too, that so many people really deal with these feelings of being self conscious or not being appreciated or not feeling that they are accepted in the world.

And it's so sad that millions of people in America are feeling this way.

And so I really wish that I could have like unlimited time, unlimited resources to like really show people that they are worthy, they are beautiful, they have, they have the ability to be photographed and like the way that they look, you know.

Yeah.

Well, you know, Adam, I really appreciate you coming over this.

I know I learned a lot about both your process and you and I'm really excited to see some of the end results.

So again, tell people about where they can find the book, what they should expect, and where they can go buy it.

So my new book, Black is Beautiful, is available on my website, adameaton.com you can now order it on my website and it will be shipped to you.

I'm working on getting it published so that it can be in bookstores locally, but also like Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, so those ideas are coming.

But right now you can directly support the book by going to my website, adameaton.com and ordering your copy.

All copies are signed by me by hand and so you'll be supporting a local artist in Rochester, New York.

That's so awesome.

So, Adam, thank you so much for coming over to the studio and thank you so much for everybody listening on the Lunchadore Podcast Network.

We'll be back with more.

Just can't not.

This has been a presentation of the Lunchadore Podcast network.

Just remember, everybody, the goal is to sell enough of these books where Adam has to buy an auto pen so he doesn't sign them by hand anymore.

Go to Adamuton.com to order your copy today.