Black Boots Ink serves an international audience by publishing photography, essays and poetry both online and in print, emphasizing a multi-voice, visual narrative about the rituals of life in the pursuit of happiness. Founded in 2005 by Elena Carrasco and Emilio Bañuelos, Black Boots Ink conducts national and international projects to foster introductions of individual artists and collaborate on the creation of gallery exhibitions, public art installations and publications. The collective has conducted youth and adult workshops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Mt. Shasta, and Guadalajara, Mexico.
The idea of the collaborative grew after the loss of a good friend, photographer Jeff Christopher, and was inspired by the members’ shared love for books, photography, literature and art. Black Boots Ink aims to build a space that is creative, accessible, sincere, informative, and interactive, and to stimulate communication by making art in the community and returning it to the community.
Through monthly Last Sunday meetings with educators, poets, artist, and musicians, Black Boots Ink has grown to include collaborators of all levels of experience and all ages, and continues to introduce the work of numerous photographers, writers and musicians on www.blackbootsink.com.
Black Boots Ink was created as an invitation to a dialogue using images as a language everyone can understand. Each theme-based issue is presented as an introduction to an extended conversation.
And who are you?
Submit words or images.
Black Boots Ink Team:
Jennifer Ahn, tends to be the kind of person who needs to plan things out or go by schedules in order to function in her everyday life. Photography allows her to slow down, explore new concepts and mixed media that involves family history and americanization. In 2000, she graduated from San Jose State University with a BFA in photography and a minor in graphic design and has exhibited in san jose, san francisco, sacramento and fresno.
Nancy Ahn. korean. artist. craft maker. kid at heart. candy eater. animal lover. scarfaholic. shit talker. nap taker. tv watcher. bored most of the time. received a b.f.a. in photography and a minor in tv/radio/film from san jose state university in 2002.
Emilio Bañuelos has worked as an editorial photographer and consultant for newspapers in Mexico, Panama and the US. His documentary work earned him fellowships from the Poynter Institute, the Marty Forscher Fellowship for Humanistic Photography and an award from EnFoco Inc. In the San Francisco bay area, Emilio teaches documentary photography for the Academy of Art University, and has conducted workshops for the University of California Santa Cruz-Extension and the University of Coahuila and Black Boots Ink.
Elena Carrasco- Bañuelos’ work has been exhibited throughout Northern California including the San Jose Museum of Art and the Museo Casa Taller Jose Clemente Orozco in Mexico. As an educator, she has worked as an instructor and program coordinator for the San Jose Museum of Art and Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana and has conducted workshops with Black Boots Ink.
My name is Alyssa-Rhaye. I think age is just a number. I love learning new words. I like to read to post-rock and my favorite color is baby blue. When I clean my room, I like to blast all my favorite indie bands. On the rare occasion that I’m scrubbing the bathtub, I play John Brown’s Body. I play my alto saxophone on warm summer evenings. I love music, if you didn’t notice and I’m the best at writing run-on sentences.
Will Hortman, based in North Carolina, earned his Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri, School of Journalism in 2002. A former journalist turned web admin, Will believes that the only thing more important than communication is providing the channels by which people communicate. He works daily to ensure information online remains free and useful.
Kija Lucas, a San Francisco Bay Area Native, graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute with a BFA in Photography in 2006 and an MFA in 2010. Since then she has been continuing her practice while working as a youth mentor and photography instructor for Urban Youth in San Francisco. Kija is determined to create and continue conversations of social change with and through the photographic medium.
BBI Mentors:
Lorraine García-Nakata, is a recognized leader in local, national, and international arts and culture, Ms. García-Nakata brings over thirty years of experience developing and implementing progressive models in the field of arts and culture. Her areas of professional expertise include: cross-discipline philanthropy; arts and cultural policy; program development and evaluation; comprehensive non-profit management; museum management; multi-professional writing; educational and cultural publications; Mexico/California arts and cultural trade missions/exchanges; Latino/a advocacy; youth and elder community empowerment; economic development; fund development; building design and construction projects; as well as strategic collaborations between institutions of higher learning, community non-profit organizations, and the private sector. A nationally recognized practicing artist, García-Nakata is a primary member of the renowned Royal Chicano Air Force (artist collective).
Beth Rubenstein, is the Executive Director and Co-founder of Out of Site Youth Arts Center in San Francisco offering after-school and summer arts programs for high school students, connecting youth to jobs, internships and opportunities in the arts and nurturing youth leadership to hone their visual and verbal skills. Out of Site’s unique approach connects best practices in arts education and in youth development, they use frameworks from Harvard University’s School of Education’s Project Zero, the Community Network for Youth Development and the California Visual and Performing Arts Standards.
Megan Wilson is a visual artist based out of San Francisco. She creates large-scale installations that incorporate traditional crafts and decoration as a point of entry and engagement for the issues she addresses conceptually. These include the meaning and value of “home;” Buddhist principles of impermanence and generosity; beauty and ornamentation; feminism; and the intersections between art/life/architecture/design. Her public projects explore and challenge socio-political structures and their impact on community and culture. Wilson grew up in Montana. She received her BFA from the University of Oregon and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art (S.F.), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Southern Exposure, Intersection for the Arts, The Luggage Store, the San Francisco Arts Commission, Sun Valley Center for the Arts (ID), thirtyninehotel (Honolulu, HI), Maude Kerns Art Center (Eugene, OR), Green Papaya (Manila), Print It! (Barcelona), and LIP (Yogyakarta). She has created public projects in the San Francisco Bay Area, Tokyo, Japan; Yogyakarta & Bali, Indonesia; Jaipur, India, and Manila Philippines.