Artists in conversation: qadir el-Amin

T: Can you give us an intro into who you are?

Q: My name is Qadir El-Amin. I’m 29. Born and raised in Baltimore. Basically, I’ve been taking photos since about 2017 and I started taking photos around the time. I went to a college called Lincoln University and it was all these people - I was in a Mass Communications major and it had two track, Digital and Strategic. Strategic was more like people who wanted to do mass media and news and digital was more for people behind the camera. A lot of people in the department, wanted to shoot music videos. A lot of people had a Canon Rebel or if you had a couple dollars you had a Sony. People were shooting music videos and I got into that wave, but also, I wanted to shoot more than music videos. I wanted to do documentaries. My mother actually, I kept telling her about it - taking photos and stuff - and she went and got me this Canon Rebel. I forgot the model, but that was a good camera. I used that for about a year and a half then I got a Sony A6300 and I was shooting video with that.

T: That’s dope. Shoutout to music videos.

Q: Yeah.

T: Interesting. That’s kinda the opposite for me. I’ve been into photography since middle school just journaling my experience and just from my grandmother. She inspired me with the photos she had on the wall. But when I got to college I wanted to do music videos because of Vincent Haycock’s “The Odyssey” with Florence + The Machine. It was a music video film. So I got into photo first then video. It’s interesting that you had the opposite.

Q:Uh huh.

T: I’m glad you brought up your mother ‘cause so much of your work features her.

Q: Right.

T: And I notice that family is a big part of your work. Can you tell us about that?

Q: So, the thing about my mother is, a lot of the photos I take, right, I always want to take photos of different people and stuff. A lot of the times I always have my camera and I always be sitting on the porch at her house or something like that. And she’s always there, so I’m like “Ma, lemme take this picture of you real quick.” One of the photos that’s featured in the show - its at my grandmother’s house - her holding a picture of my grandmother. That photo is something I actually thought out though, beforehand. But most of the time, the photos I’ve taken of her might be on my Instagram, are on the spot. The thing about my mother is, I notice this - my mother take hella photos. I got hella family photos. Just a shitload of pictures at their house. Photos and videos.

T: Are these photos that she’s in or photos that she’s taken?

Q: She took! Lowkey, just her taking them. She recorded a lot of family videos. She took a lot of photos of my brother and I and my dad.  She was documenting a lot of stuff. She was just documenting, but they look good. They look like they were taken by somebody who’s thing is photography. So just seeing that is cool after I got older.

T: Shoutout to moms. And shoutout to the documentarians. I’m glad you brought that up because I definitely had a question about if you inherited that or if its something you started. But it sounds like moms was the documentarian and you just inherited it.

Q: Yeah. Basically.

T: It’s so crazy that your mom and my grandma went to the same high school. Your mom went to Forest Park, right?

Q: Yup. My mother, my father, my uncle.

T: My grandmother went to Forest Park. I think she was either class of ’66 or ’68. So it’s interesting. This idea of people holding pictures, was the one with your mother the start of that? Or, where did that idea come from? Because I really notice that theme and I really like the parallels in it.

Q: I low-key feel like the idea came out of nowhere. When I do get on Instagram I see a lot of people’s stuff. I think I was watching a music video and somebody was holding a picture or something like that. I can’t remember whose video it was. It was a candlelight and people was holding pictures and that’s where the idea came from. And I thought “Oh, I can get my mother.” It was one of them ideas where I thought about it the night before and I knew my mother was gonna be up at my grandmother’s house so I said “Ma, stay where you at.” It was definitely inspired by a candlelight vigil type thing.

T: Shoutout to grandmas, but also shoutout to documenting those intergenerational stories. Last question, who is on your moldboard. Who’s been inspiring you?

Q: Uhmmm, so its two people. Two people. It’s three. Like I said in the beginning, I said photos to me is not like a job or nothing. It’s just lifestyle stuff. Personal stuff. Catching a lot of memorable stuff.  First, I’ma mention my mother. Two, there’s a photographer - an older Black man, he probably passed away by now - he was from Pittsburg. His name was Teenie Harris. A lot of his stuff is at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburg. He just took a lot of pictures walking around with a camera and just took a lot pf pictures of Pittsburg’s Black community in the 40s into the 70s. So there’s him and this guy from Baltimore and he used to shoot for the AFRO. His name is escaping me, but I have one of his photos in my house. I wish I could remember his name. All those people took photos on some lifestyle stuff. Like, but they captured some of the most memorable stuff. Just catching people in their element. As far as my style - my goal is to shoot portraits of people just doing them. Family members, friends, people I don’t know. But that’s basically what I want to do.

T: Are you familiar with Jamel Shabazz.

Q: Yes! From New York, right?

T: Yes!

Q: Yeah! Yeah!

T: I feel like there’s a parallel between your work and his.

Q: I like his stuff. When I look at his stuff its all from the late 70s early 80s just catching people in their element. But, like, his stuff is like a time capsule for that time in New York. I notice in his pictures 5 percenters, Nation of Islam - stuff like that. It’s literally a time capsule. You can see he was right around at the dawn of hip hop. So yeah, I like stuff like that where you can look back and see “Oh this was from this time in this city!” It’s super important I feel.

T: Lastly, what would you say to someone looking to get into photography.

Q: I would say, don’t wait. Get out there now. Take that iPhone. Turn that joint sideways. Or whatever phone you have. Download the VSCO app and start editing them joints on there. But also don’t get caught up in the gear hype. A lot of times, these YouTubers, they’re photographers, they’re on cameras and it starts to make you feel “I gotta have this. I gotta have that”. This gonna sound cliche, but the best camera you have is the one you got.