Digital Issue 19: Rahim Fortune – I can’t stand to see you cry

© Rahim Fortune 2021, courtesy Loose Joints.

Excerpt taken from Paper Journal Digital Issue 19, available to download now.

Fortune’s work certainly has a clear link to the restless times we are living in. Even if the point of view remains personal throughout the entire body of work, it is not limited to a singular struggle; instead, Fortune uses photography to depict communal issues such as racial inequality and welfare disparity. Letting his eyes wander onto family members, friends and strangers, his pictures explore the notion of identity, tracing similarities and unique markers inside a wider community.

Looking at his photographs, it is impossible not to notice a close bond within the tradition of American documentary photography. Fortune’s choice of medium format and almost exclusively using natural light suggests a level of care and attention in the composition of each image, including portraits of intimate moments, daily activities, and families in their homes, combined with urban landscapes and street details. Thanks to the use of such a familiar visual language, his images become tools of awareness, exploring the friction between public and private, and the silent tensions in everyday life.

  • A selection of spreads from Paper Journal digital issue 19. Cover © Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Vanessa and Diane, 2016

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I can’t stand to see you cry by Rahim Fortune is published by Loose Joints.