My first time meeting photographer Adama Jalloh is one of my favourite memories. I was at a screening of Jenn Nkiru‘s film “Rebirth is Necessary” at the ICA and the vibes were so warm & loose that everyone was talking to everyone. The girl next to me asked me my name & when she told me hers, I said “are you a photographer?” I spent the rest of the night gushing over her & telling her how much her work inspires my own. We met up back in February; on purpose this time, in a (too) noisy cafe to discuss her creative process, empathy & intuition, the symbiotic relationship between her & her camera and our joint love of music.

As artists of whatever kind, I feel it’s important to ground your intentions at all times. To remember why you do what you do. That way you can find yourself when you get lost. To kick off my residency on DIALOGUES, in this episode, I want to take stock of my own process & ground my intentions.

lyds is a poet and writer based in London, UK. Her writing practice is predicated on delineating the human condition through the prisms of Black womanhood, sensuality, music and the sacred; utilising radical honesty. Her work has been published by AFROPUNK (2018), syla studio (2019), Kandaka (2019), sweet-thang zine (2019) and New Landscapes Anthology (2019). She co-facilitates PRISM WRITERS; a writers group for Black women held at the Southbank Centre. She graduated in 2019 with a Master’s in Black British Writing from Goldsmiths, University of London.