Open Door Community Celebrates 30 Years

We are proud to be friends of the Open Door Community and to celebrate its 30 Year Anniversary!  The Open Door is a residential community that seeks to dismantle racism, sexism and heterosexism, abolish the death penalty, and proclaim the Beloved Community through loving relationships with some of the most neglected and outcast of God’s children: the homeless and our sisters and brothers who are in prison. 

Photos by Kari and Carlton Mackey

My True Vision Photography

Canon Lens Cup - One Super Cool Gift

As a photographer I must say that this is one of the coolest freaking gifts that I've gotten in a long time.  Thank you so very much Mariangela Jordan.  I'm still totally trippin out over how amazingly brilliant it is and how much of an exact replica it is.

Google:  Canon Lens Cup...to get one of your own.

Cheers!

50 Shades of Black - African American Sex Symbols and the Complexity of Skin Tone

My latest art piece is fashioned in the style of a book cover.  Its title (most certainly) and its subject matter (very loosely) are the result of a creative play on the very popular contemporary novel Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James.

Now that the art/cover is created, it’s time to write the book.  This is where you come into play.  While this subject could very easily lead to a book written by a sole individual, I am interested in a conversation…in a dialogue.  I’d like for that dialogue…those contributions from you to be the basis of the manuscript.

Share with me your responses to this piece.  It may be in the form of quick comments, reflections, essays, personal stories, anecdotes, memories of things you heard your mama say about Billy Dee Williams, etc.  Over time, I’ll organize, synthesize, group, copy and paste these comments into a document with the goal of ultimately producing a FREE downloadable e-book of your contributions to the topic.  It’s a book to be written on the Internet by Internet users.  Just like any other piece of art, it’s open for interpretation. 

Who knows how this will go?  I don’t.  I don’t even know if it has ever been done before.  But I am very curious what you have to say…and something tells me other people are too. 

Let’s talk.

50 SHADES OF BLACK

(from black coffee to high yellow)

African American Sex Symbols & the Complexity of Skin Tone

Conceived and Designed by Carlton Mackey – Written by You

Feel Free to leave comments below

 Or

Email extended comments to:

carltonmackey@carltonmackey.com
carlton.mackey@facebook.com

Neuzz nears completion of Atlanta Living Walls Mural

I had the pleasure of “going up” with Miguel Mejía.

Miguel Mejía, aka “Neuzz,” is an illustrator, painter, street artist, and muralist from Mexico who characteristically references Mexican graphics throughout his work.  Neuzz is working on a wall located at 384 Edgewood Ave NE, and plans to finish in the next couple days. Living Walls welcomes the public to stop by, observe or even participate in the process.  I took them up on their offer.

Sacred Side of Jazz Concert Trailer by VISION Philms

THE SACRED SIDE OF JAZZ

Official trailer for Dalan Vanterpool’s Sacred Side of Jazz project. www.dalanvanterpool.com

Produced by Carlton Mackey and Christopher Rhodes
VISIONPhilms 2012

posted to carltonmackey.com on 05/15/2012

(photos and video by carlton mackey)

The Open Door Community Celebrates 30 Years of Fighting for the marginalized and Neglected

We are proud to be friends of the OPEN DOOR COMMUNITY.


Congratulations on 30 years of making a difference.

The Open Door Community is a residential community in the Catholic Worker tradition (we’re sometimes called a Protestant Catholic Worker House). We seek to dismantle racism, sexism and heterosexism, abolish the death penalty, and proclaim the Beloved Community through loving relationships with some of the most neglected and outcast of God’s children: the homeless and our sisters and brothers who are in prison.

Photos by Kari and Carlton Mackey

1950's Vintage Agfa Silette Pronto Camera with a Story to Tell

I was excited to see the camera at the yard sale, was even more excited by the price, but nothing prepared me for what happened when I got back to my office and started playing with it.  I have my share of vintage cameras, each with its own character and story, but this one may (hopefully) have even more to tell than the others.  

After some Google investigation, I learned:

Agfa Silette Pronto Vintage 1950s 35mm Film CameraThe first generation of Silette models was produced from 1953 to the early 1960s and the original Silette appeared in 1953. It was a simple well built 35mm camera with a simple viewfinder, a leaf shutter, a lever wind advance and an accessory shoe. The shutters for the Pronto is 1/25-1/200, the lens is a three element Agfa Color Apotar 3.5/45mm.   

...but that's not the cool part.  The cool part is when I opened the back of the camera to see how to load a roll in the event I wanted to "take it for a spin". I discovered a roll of original 1950's era film in the back!

I quickly closed it back up and hoped that it was not all ruined by the light.  Hopefully only the few exposed parts of the strip suffered any damage.  This story is definitely to be continued.  I'm now obsessed fascinated with (in the dark room at Wonderroot) developing this film and sharing with you stories that have been in the making for quite some time now.

(cross your fingers)

Links:
carltonmackey.com
mytruevision.com