If you ask Dario Calmese, the founder of the Institute Black Imagination, a Harvard fellow, the first black man (and queer black man) to photograph the cover of Vanity Fair, who he is, he would simply state the following: artist, creative director,  photographer, and design theorist and ‘anything else that I find interesting’. A design theorist according to Dario Calmese is broken down into two parts, design being the technology to make thought into time and space. In turn, design theory is the lens that allows you to see the world in ones and zeros. And Calmese’s world of ones and zeros, black genius, and creative influential work is the one we should all be interested in being a part of.

Calmese’s world view intertwines in what his own view on himself and relationship to his blackness and queerness. When asked whether or not his combined identity might make it harder or easier, or have no real effect on his position in the creative world he replied with: “It makes me think about a James Baldwin quote, I am paraphrasing but: being black and queer is like hitting the jackpot. And I agree with him. I think any identity or positionality that gives you an opportunity to exist outside of the mainstream is a privilege, it allows you to actually see the thing, see it for what it is, vs being a part of it. There’s that phrase, you can’t see the forest or the tree. Being queer, being black lets me beyond the forest. And in many ways, it's my decision whether or not if I want to  love what I see, if I want to reject what I see, but I think in the act of loving it, then you are also called to try to change it.

 

“There is also Sonia Sotomajor, who is a Supreme Court Justice, and I believe it was either her acceptance or confirmation, where she called herself a wise Latina. Her experience of growing up in public housing, being a latin woman, gives her a certain positionality that will allow her reality to better adjudicate cases, her point of view is outside of the mainstream. Which means that what she says the ways she exists in the world in many ways will always be integrated, because her point of view will always be different than what is considered normal.” On some level, Calmese admits, he finds it a privilege to be black and queer, while also maintaining and acknowledging he feels as if somewhere in the universe he chose this identity, which took a certain measure of courage and chose to play life “on hard mode.”

 

Calmese’s ability to see beyond the societal normal might have been a factor that led to his historical image of Viola Davis. The image is deeply inspired by the torn scarred back of a former enslaved black man. Calmese explains he took much into consideration around the image and the honor of taking the title of being the first black man to photograph the cover of Vanity Fair of a magazine that had been around for decades. 2020 was the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement and a global pandemic and the former was something deeply in Calmese’s heart and mind when planning the inspiration of the photograph. The uplifting of black people, he says, before responding to the considerations of beyond the color, hair, personality, he wanted to show in the image saying: “As an artist, one is always thinking about of how I am reflection or reflecting the times in which I find myself in,” Calmese says thinking about his experience planning and shooting the Vanity fair cover. “That I became the first black photographer at the time was something in many ways was out of my control… that I didn’t take lightly and don’t take lightly. Although I was given this opportunity, I wasn’t the first black photographer that could shoot the cover for Vanity Fair.”

 

Ultimately, when asked if the Vanity Fair Cover symbolizes Calmese “making it”, Dario laughed, charmingly, before saying, “I may feel accomplished on some level… but have I made it? I think dying is probably making it. Because the process of being human the process of being is just that, a process.” He goes on to say one peak is met with another in the distance and there are always higher places to aim for. 

 

“The process of discovery is never done… it may feel daunting to some, but to me it’s exciting.” For those just starting those in the creative industry might find comfort in those words, that even a photographer who could be considered a celebrity or a well known figure admitting he too is in a stage of career or still thriving. More words of solidarity followed as when Dario was asked what advice he would give those who were just starting today with backgrounds from outside the societal norm, he simply said “save grace and keep dreaming.”