We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful DJ Evans. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with DJ below.

DJ, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My most recent project was putting on my very first solo show as a visual artist. I was accepting earlier in the year to have a show of my own displaying my art to my community. My personal goal for this show was to understand who SNAVÉ is as an artist and why I specifically choose to mainly work with black men. The world sees black men as a collective: violent, angry and toxic but the men I surround myself with is the complete opposite and I want to capture it and create it as art. My great friend Darius helped me so much setting up for the show. The decorations was nature and flowers ; my art and my spirituality were inspired within nature. I wanted to create those same feelings in nature within the show by the nature aesthetics, placing each picture together I feel that tells similar stories and my live installation of my friend in a flower/moss suit with a tv on his head as my center piece. The same day of my show was the same day as my grandmother’s birthday and she had a chance to see my show and I got to celebrate her with all of my friends and supporters.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am SNAVÉ, a creative born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. When it comes to my art, it has a vintage era that comes with a story to tell. I love to play with colors; the color grading, the clothing, the colors of locations etc. any shoot I do my colors have to match or block each other always. I provide photography , creative direction and styling services. I mainly work with men because photographers here mainly work with women but who’s catering to the men? Who’s capturing the essence, the beauty and the strength of the black man? I want to be the photographer in my hometown to showcase just that. I’m proud of my growth as an artist the most. I see myself past a photographer, I refer to myself as a visual storyteller because every shot I capture I strive to tell a story and get emotions , feelings to arise when viewing my art. I want the masses to know that I take my art seriously and that I love to turn people into art.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The reward is knowing that I have the ability to inspire people with the art I create.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I want to bring back resources back to Mississippi. André 3000 mentioned “The South has something to say”, but Mississippi seems to always be excluded from the equation. Every opportunity I’m blessed with and/or new space I’m in I’ll always tell people proudly I’m from Mississippi and we have a goldmine of creative talent here that’s overlooked.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/by.snave
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/djthepaparazzo_

Image Credits
Portrait of myself: Justin Hardiman