Case Study: The 1619 Project — Born on the Water

Executive Summary

Project: The debut of the theatrical adaptation of The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson
Client/Partners: The Canady Foundation of the Arts, DC Public Library
Role: Visual Director and Documentary Lead for Born on the Water documenting live performance and institutional use

This project required more than coverage. It required judgment. The images needed to function across press, education, and institutional contexts, without distorting tone, intent, or meaning.

My responsibility was to protect interpretation while producing images that could travel safely between audiences with very different expectations.

Context

Born on the Water is a theatrical adaptation of The 1619 Project designed for students and public audiences. The work lives inside cultural, political, and educational systems simultaneously. Any visual output would be read through multiple lenses:

• journalistic

• institutional

• educational

• political

This meant the photography could not be expressive first. It had to be legible, responsible, and durable.

My Role

I was brought in to create photography that could be used by:

• the production itself

• host institutions

• press and editorial outlets

• educators and administrators

My responsibility was not just to document what happened on stage, but to shape how the work could be understood outside the room.

The Core Problem

The surface task was: photograph a theatrical performance.

The deeper problem was: how to create images that do not collapse a complex cultural work into a single emotional or political reading.

The risk was not technical failure. It was interpretive failure:

• images being read as advocacy rather than education

• moments being extracted without context

• emotional emphasis overwhelming intellectual purpose

The project needed images that could carry meaning without forcing meaning.

Strategic Approach

Rather than treating this as performance photography, I treated it as institutional communication.

That meant prioritizing:

• clarity over drama

• structure over spectacle

• balance over intensity

Every frame had to answer three questions:

1. What does this image say about the work?

2. Who can safely use this image?

3. What meaning will survive once context is removed?

Decision Framework

1. Restraint as a Creative Tool

I avoided the most emotionally extreme moments unless they served narrative clarity. Images were composed to show relationships; between performers, space, and audience, rather than isolating peak emotion.

2. Spatial Awareness

Wide and mid-range compositions preserved staging and choreography. This allowed the work to be read as a designed production, not just an emotional event.

3. Tone Management

Lighting, contrast, and color were treated conservatively in post-production. The goal was fidelity to the room, not stylization.

4. Institutional Usability

I selected images based on whether they could live comfortably on:

• a school website

• a press release

• a grant report

• a cultural organization’s homepage

If an image could only live on social media, it was usually not selected.

Execution

I worked with the production’s rhythms rather than imposing coverage patterns. This meant:

• learning the emotional and narrative arc of the performance

• anticipating key transitions rather than isolated moments

• treating scenes as units of meaning rather than isolated gestures

This allowed the final image set to function as a coherent visual system rather than a highlight reel.

Specific Decision Moments

These examples show how risk was managed in practice, not just in theory.

1. Technical foresight to preserve continuity
On the first day of tech rehearsals, I identified that the existing XLR runs would not reliably reach the camera position without compromising signal integrity. I secured longer cables so audio could feed directly into the camera. This avoided fragmented sound references and preserved synchronization for review, editorial, and archival needs.

2. Spatial scouting to protect narrative clarity
Before shooting, I scouted vantage points that could hold the full geometry of the stage and choreography. Positions were chosen to show relationships between performers and space, ensuring images read as designed scenes rather than isolated emotional peaks.

3. Intentional restraint around privacy
I chose not to photograph Nikole Hannah-Jones during certain moments. The decision protected personal boundaries and prevented images from being extracted in ways that could distort authorship or intent. This preserved trust and reduced the chance of misinterpretation once images traveled beyond the room.

4. Coordination with institutional partners
I worked with DC Library staff to document the first private meeting between Marjuan and Nikole Hannah-Jones with the understanding that the images would not be released publicly. This preserved the integrity of the moment while still creating an internal record for the institution, reinforcing trust between creative, subject, and host organization.

5. Distribution-aware composition
Knowing the photographs would be used across social media and press contexts, I composed frames with centered subjects and generous margins. This ensured that when images were cropped or reformatted by third parties, the core subject and meaning remained intact.

Outcomes

The images were used across:

• institutional communications

• press coverage

• educational materials

• long-term archival documentation

More importantly, the work remained legible across audiences. It did not require explanation to function, and it did not provoke unintended readings when separated from the live performance.

Why This Matters

Many high-visibility projects fail visually not because the photography is bad, but because it is too specific to one emotional interpretation.

My role in this project was to absorb that risk.

Rather than asking, “How can I make this look powerful?” the guiding question was:
“How can this be used safely and accurately by people who were not in the room?”

What This Demonstrates

This project shows how I approach:

• culturally sensitive material

• institutional communication

• multi-audience interpretation

• long-term usability

It is representative not because of its subject matter, but because of the decision-making framework behind it.

For Prospective Clients

If you are responsible for:

• representing a complex idea publicly

• protecting an organization’s credibility

• ensuring your work is understood correctly

My role is not simply to make images.
It is to create visual material that can travel through systems without breaking meaning.

Next Step

If this way of working aligns with how you think about visibility and responsibility, the best next step is a brief alignment conversation.

The goal is not to sell a shoot.
It is to understand whether the problem you are trying to solve is one I am built to handle.