Undercurrent By Joshua Parks

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Public Works Art Center

Photography Exhibition by Local Charleston Photographer

East Gallery | March 20th – May 10th

Opening Reception: March 20th from 5:30pm – 8:30pm

ARTIST STATEMENT:

In the summer of 2023 I set up a booth offering free portraits to the spirited people that frequented the Coastal Carolina Flea Market. This place offered the opposite of Downtown Charleston’s glossy facade — it was a vibrant and unfiltered space teeming with life, stories, and a deep sense of place. The result of my experience is this portrait series, a raw exploration of the people who embody the spirit of South Carolina. Through these photographs, I invite viewers to engage with the souls of the South Carolinians whose lives and histories continue to shape the Lowcountry’s identity, even as it evolves under the pressures of gentrification and cultural erasure.

ARTIST BIO:

Joshua Parks is a Black southern museum professional, filmmaker, and photographer from Jacksonville, Florida. His roots stretch back over seven generations in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. His work analyzes rural communities in the Black Belt South, their relationship to land and water as the basis of subsistence, autonomy, survival, and collective memory, and how these elements influence social and cultural development. Joshua was the principal photographer for the Greenbook of South Carolina (2022), and has photos exhibited at the International African American Museum, Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture and the Seashore Farmers’ Lodge Museum and Cultural Center. He has worked as an in-house producer for the International African American Museum, contributing to their core digital exhibitions (short educational documentaries) such as Carolina Gold, Memories of the Enslaved, Gullah Geechee Overview Film, Moving Star Hall, the Parks/Wilder Family History, and more. He currently owns and operates Cimarron Productions, a full scale film, photography and digital media company, in addition to co-founding the Lowcountry Arts Movement, a non-profit dedicated to building an ecosystem of Black artists, cultural workers and organizers whose goal is to create and promote art and programming that raises the collective consciousness of the Lowcountry community and beyond. Joshua received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in History from Howard University, and is pursuing a Masters degree in Public History at the College of Charleston.