As a part of Scalawag's collaboration with the How We Get Over: We Grow On Exhibition, curated by artists Jasmine Williams and Sarah Jené, Jackson-based photographer Justin Hardiman invited folks to participate in an audio-visual exploration of their relationship to grief. He asked each person he photographed to do two small tasks for their shoot:

  1. Pick a color that represented how they visualize grief, and
  2. Pick an object that represented how they engage with grief in their own lives. 

What color or colors remind you of grief?

What tools, objects, or practices allow you to creatively engage your grief?

After interviewing them, Hardiman used his talents to create the intimate portraits seen below. Study how individualized each portrait of grief is. Different emotions collide without canceling one another out.

Each person discusses how something helped them address their grief or at least allowed them to keep moving with and despite grief. Often these tended to be instruments of self-expression and creativity. Take some time to sit with their reflections, responses, and meditations.

Brianna 'Bebe' Anderson

Color:
BLACK

Object:
VEIL

Brianna 'Bebe' Anderson as photographed for 'The Color of Grief,' an audio-visual project by photographer Justin Hardiman that documents Black grief.
As a part of Scalawag's collaboration with the How We Get Over: We Grow On Exhibition, curated by artists Jasmine Williams and Sarah Jené, Jackson-based photographer Justin Hardiman invited folks to participate in an audio-visual exploration of their relationship to grief. He asked each person he photographed to do two small tasks for their shoot: Pick a color that represented how they visualize grief, and Pick an object that represented how they engage with grief in their own lives. Photographer Justin Hardiman, a collaborator with Jasmine Williams and Sarah Jené's 'How We Get Over: We Grow On' project at the Mississippi Museum of Art, shares stunning portraits and excerpts from his audio-visual project, 'The Color of Grief.'

"My mom passed away when I was so young. I was just eight years old. I got a good glimpse of her from my little eyes, but when I became a woman I saw where I actually lacked—so my grieving was different when I first lost her than it is now… I think that I appreciate how God has laid out my life now, because now I do appreciate more women, and I appreciate the connections that I do have because I lost the connection with my mom—or I think I lost the connection. I physically don't have her here, but she's here!"

Sade Meeks

Color:
YELLOW & GREEN

Object:
SUNFLOWER

Sade Meeks as photographed for 'The Color of Grief,' an audio-visual project by photographer Justin Hardiman that documents Black grief.
As a part of Scalawag's collaboration with the How We Get Over: We Grow On Exhibition, curated by artists Jasmine Williams and Sarah Jené, Jackson-based photographer Justin Hardiman invited folks to participate in an audio-visual exploration of their relationship to grief. He asked each person he photographed to do two small tasks for their shoot: Pick a color that represented how they visualize grief, and Pick an object that represented how they engage with grief in their own lives. Photographer Justin Hardiman, a collaborator with Jasmine Williams and Sarah Jené's 'How We Get Over: We Grow On' project at the Mississippi Museum of Art, shares stunning portraits and excerpts from his audio-visual project, 'The Color of Grief.'

Dee Spillman

Color:
HUNTER GREEN
& NEUTRAL BROWN

Object:
CAMERA & JACKET

Dee Spillman as photographed for 'The Color of Grief,' an audio-visual project by photographer Justin Hardiman that documents Black grief.

"I picked a neutral brown to be representative of us as people… Every single inkling of us is some kind of grief, some kind of trauma we've carried on, whether it was our own or not. I often think we take on grief that isn't ours."

As a part of Scalawag's collaboration with the How We Get Over: We Grow On Exhibition, curated by artists Jasmine Williams and Sarah Jené, Jackson-based photographer Justin Hardiman invited folks to participate in an audio-visual exploration of their relationship to grief. He asked each person he photographed to do two small tasks for their shoot: Pick a color that represented how they visualize grief, and Pick an object that represented how they engage with grief in their own lives. Photographer Justin Hardiman, a collaborator with Jasmine Williams and Sarah Jené's 'How We Get Over: We Grow On' project at the Mississippi Museum of Art, shares stunning portraits and excerpts from his audio-visual project, 'The Color of Grief.'

Nadia McKoy

Color:
PINK

Object:
SELENITE CRYSTAL

As a part of Scalawag's collaboration with the How We Get Over: We Grow On Exhibition, curated by artists Jasmine Williams and Sarah Jené, Jackson-based photographer Justin Hardiman invited folks to participate in an audio-visual exploration of their relationship to grief. He asked each person he photographed to do two small tasks for their shoot: Pick a color that represented how they visualize grief, and Pick an object that represented how they engage with grief in their own lives. Photographer Justin Hardiman, a collaborator with Jasmine Williams and Sarah Jené's 'How We Get Over: We Grow On' project at the Mississippi Museum of Art, shares stunning portraits and excerpts from his audio-visual project, 'The Color of Grief.'
Nadia McKoy as photographed for 'The Color of Grief,' an audio-visual project by photographer Justin Hardiman that documents Black grief.

J Buck

COLOR:
Black

OBJECT:
Paintbrushes

As a part of Scalawag's collaboration with the How We Get Over: We Grow On Exhibition, curated by artists Jasmine Williams and Sarah Jené, Jackson-based photographer Justin Hardiman invited folks to participate in an audio-visual exploration of their relationship to grief. He asked each person he photographed to do two small tasks for their shoot: Pick a color that represented how they visualize grief, and Pick an object that represented how they engage with grief in their own lives. Photographer Justin Hardiman, a collaborator with Jasmine Williams and Sarah Jené's 'How We Get Over: We Grow On' project at the Mississippi Museum of Art, shares stunning portraits and excerpts from his audio-visual project, 'The Color of Grief.'

"I started using my creativity not as a way to deal with grief but as a way to escape from it. Growing up in the church, my dad a preacher, my grandad a preacher, my great-grandad a preacher… I didn't want to do that, and nobody around me really understood me as a person. I was grieving the loss of understanding, and so I kept spiraling into this rabbit hole of my own creation—forcing people to see me as what I wanted to be, which was a creative, an artist."

J Buck as photographed for 'The Color of Grief,' an audio-visual project by photographer Justin Hardiman that documents Black grief.

more from grief & other loves

A Decade of Scalawag: Top Stories Each Year

Celebrating 10 years of Scalawag with a retrospective

In November, Scalawag celebrated a decade of collaboratively strengthening Southern social movements with our reporting. Thanks to Beloved Community, we remain a part of cultivating a liberated South. In late 2014, editors were waiting on the first round of final drafts to be submitted, and the next summer—amidst many uprisings and rebellions calling for dignity…

by Scalawag Editors

Justin Hardiman is a self-taught freelance photographer and visual artist from Jackson, Mississippi. Justin’s artistic vision has been displayed around the world using Mississippi as a muse. His work amplifies the under-represented sides of his community and speaks to the capabilities of Mississippians and “doing more with less.” The empowerment, beauty, and resilience of Justin’s art is inspired by the environment, whether that’s a specific location or his family and friends. A Jackson State University alumnus and former basketball player, Justin focuses on finding creativity in everything he does.