Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Morgan Banks. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Morgan, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Burdened By Blood, my thesis project, was my most meaningful project to date. It was two years of my life where it required my focus, attention and realness. I couldn’t hide from the topic of grief because I was in the middle of it. This work focused on Black women dealing with grief in roles of matriarchy and eldest daughters. Which questioned the views of care of Black women in different family dynamics.
Even though I chose this topic, I would have never came to this conclusion without my director Bill Gaskins. At the end of my first semester of my graduate program at MICA, I was diagnosed with prolonged grief disorder and also lost 3 people in my family in that same semester. All around I was struggling inside and Bill saw that. I remember we sat in his office for like 3 hours! Just going back and forth about what is important to me and I was completely lost. I remember him saying “Here are the things I hear from you…Black women, fear of marriage/commitment, and Family. After that conversation I sat for hours in my studio just staring at those words.
Then that weekend I attended my cousin’s funeral who had passed away. She was a year older me and I remember feeling over it. Over the feeling of sadness, over the feeling needing to hold my sadness for duty. And over the obligation I felt to help out. I was watching both sides of the room that day, split up, my family on one side and my cousin’s friends on the other side. I watched as my mom busied herself feeding everyone and she just looked exhausted, watched my other cousins organizing the funeral but in their faces I saw their grief holding. For some reason in that moment it felt like God had highlighted them for me to really see them for the first time…that is where Burdened By Blood was birthed and where its meaning came in.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I started Sistahs with photos in 2015, but I started taking photos 2 years before as a hobby. But I hated working for people, hated my job at the time (working at a daycare) and I was talking to this guy who was a photographer at the time and it peaked my interest so much that I was finding myself in to it more than him…lol.
After about 2 years of workshops and self taught videos on youtube, I decided that I would do freelance photography, but it was so hard. I began having visions for different works I wanted to create and spaces I wanted to be in but I didn’t know where to start. So, I applied to Maryland Institute College of Art photgraphy graduate program (MICA). In 2024, I graduated with my Masters in Fine Arts in photography and have been in multiple exhibitions, curated shows and now work as a Professor at Coppin State University.
I have one business called Sistahs with Photos that is my photography business. I shoot family, potrait, headshots, landscape, maternity photoshoots but I also do my personal projects under Sistahs with photos too. I also have one program called S.I.T (Sistahs in Truth). That was created through the project Burdened By Blood. This is a traveling retreat in grief program that gathers women from a community with high rates of issues like mortality, crime, and homelessness and partners with a grief counseling center in the neighborhood to hold a retreat in grief. It allows women to receive a foundational knowledge on the process of grief, what care can look like in grief, and what resources are within the community that can be of service to you in your processing of grief too minimize physical health repercussions in the future. In the summer of 2024, S.I.T partnered with Roberta’s House grief counseling center and vendors located in Baltimore City and New York City to put on the first retreat in grief for 15 women. It was special because over 50 women signed up to be apart of the retreat. The women learned about support in life and death through the panel discussions with both birth and death doulas speaking. Also, learned about sound therapy and plant therapy as viable ways of processing grief.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I believe the goal that drives my creative journey is to recreate the act of grace within humanity. My work is not exceptional in technique but what is shown is the vulnerability of human connection. The act of grace in society today is lost with the noise of producing and individual success or failure of an “ideal” lifestyle. We no longer have reasoning to sit and be still when life throws us for a loop because our views have been shifted into believing that stillness is laziness, emotions are weakness, and miscommunication is good communication. Life is precious not machinery. How you choose to embrace those vulnerablities that cannot be explained away is when your humanity has learned the value of grace and connection.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The moment when I am done creating and I get to watch the viewer’s reaction. I am super into people watching. When I am exhibiting or presenting work to a client I like to watch from the side because people are only honest in the first few seconds of their initial reaction of looking at anything. Whether good or bad doesn’t matter, I appreciate the honesty that can’t be hidden and even the moment when I see someone’s mask go up as they prepare to engage in “conversation” with me about their take on the work.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mj-photography-llc.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swp_photos?igsh=MWRtNHpoYmtpaXU3Ng==
- Facebook: Sistahs with photos
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/sistahsntruth?igsh=MTQzbWwzbHFlaDAwbg==
https://www.instagram.com/action_means_more?igsh=YnljcGoya2d0Y2Qx
Image Credits
Sistahs with Photos