On this week’s Blank Canvas, NAGB Director Amanda Coulson speaks with participating artists in the ongoing photographic opus, The Bahamian Project (www.bahamianproject.com), which opens its next leg on Thursday evening at the Central Bank Art Gallery. This iteration features 21 photographers, including Guilden M. Gilbert Jr., who joins us in the studio alongside founder and creative director Duke Wells and founder and project manager Ana-Lisa Wells.
Conceived after the passing of Jackson Burnside—when Duke Wells realised there were no fitting official portraits of this Bahamian icon—the project seeks to record, archive, and preserve images of people who embody “the Bahamian spirit.” Nominations can be made via the project’s website, ensuring a broad cross-section of society is represented.
The first exhibition was organised in 2013 at NAGB to celebrate 40 years of independence, featuring 40 black-and-white portraits by Duke Wells. Recognising the scale of the task, Duke and Ana-Lisa invited colleagues to join, expanding the range of photographers and approaches.
The Central Bank show will present 50 new prints and a digital display of all 130 images from the project, which has grown over five years and embraced many local photographers.
Bright Lights & Raw Gems: Portraits from the Bahamian Project opens Thursday, 6 July, at 6 pm and runs through the end of the month.