Latricia Morgan shows ‘normal’ is the new perfect through powerful photography
With her powerful photography and elegant jewelry, Latricia Morgan is showing that “normal” is the new perfect and encouraging people to stay weird through incredible pieces of art.
For five years now, Morgan has been taking photos and breathing new life into the art world with subjects who are just normal people. While she’s only been making jewelry for a little over 7 months now, she’s already crafted a variety of elegant and unique pieces. Not only that, but she creates all of this artwork while managing her time as a student.
Take a look at the art of Latricia Morgan and how she’s re-defining perfection her own way.
View this post on Instagram
What drives her work
One of the inspirations behind Latricia Morgan’s work is not just the fun of it, but also being able to interpret the world and people in it through her camera lens. According to Morgan,
“I think what inspires me is maybe how fun it is, for me to be on the other side and to show people how I see them from my lens specifically.”
Another source of inspiration is giving attention to regular people and promoting a sense of diversity in style in beauty. While mainstream media and art may promote a certain image of what’s supposedly beautiful, there can be a disparity at times between what the media and art world portrays, and what actual people are like.
“A big reason I started was like, ‘what about us? What about the regular people? What about the girls with big noses, flat noses, or the girls with big lips and dark skin like myself’,” said Morgan.
“I thought it definitely was my job to shoot for more girls that look like me and also make space for any girl within the minority role, who don’t look like what the media fetishizes.”
Photographing the revolution
Current events are also impacting Morgan and her work. In the wake of the racial justice protests in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, she created her “For George Floyd” photo series, which provides a close look into local protests.
“I think that it’s the revolution. And the revolution, like they say on Twitter, is now being televised. Thanks to phones and thanks to the internet,” said Morgan. “The series is there for me to be able to photograph the revolution.”
Not only that, but Morgan also has a personal connection with these protests.
“I am black. I am from the projects in the South Bronx, and for me to sit on my hands with the tools that I’ve been given in order to record and to photograph and to document, I would be doing a disservice to myself and the people that come after me…it’s a responsibility to not be silent.”
Beyond just the protests, the COVID-19 pandemic is also taking its toll on her work. For one, Morgan has to deny photography gigs to protect herself and her household. However, it isn’t entirely without a silver lining. She also mentioned it has “granted me a weird recharge, in some ways not all.”
“I’m in the community that it’s hitting the most. People are like dying every day, candle vigils every day, and it’s because these neighborhoods that I live in, that I’m from, are overpopulated, poorly taken care of,” said Morgan.
“It’s just it’s a different type of life. So it’s hitting me hard, but I’m finding the light in it, because I do have some privileges.”
The crisis is providing her with some opportunities, however. She says,
“A lot of allies are trying to show their support, and in doing so, they’re offering helping hands, and they’re also uplifting black people…or just help a friend.”
The significance of her art
Latricia Morgan’s art encourages and even empowers people to embrace their imperfections as what makes them unique. With her jewelry especially, her message is to “be okay with being weird.”
“I want people to wear them and be okay with being weird,” said Morgan. “I want them to be head-turners, and I want them just to wear them and have fun.”
Morgan’s photography meanwhile is a breath of fresh air in the art world. Unlike most professional photography, hers doesn’t contain any actors or models, just regular people.
“The people that I post on my Instagram are not models. They are real people,” said Morgan. “I just want people to see, you know, imperfections…made someone perfect to me. If I’m posting them, then it’s perfect to me.”
“I just hope people see the errors and be okay with it and see that nobody is perfect on my page. Please get with the time. We will be fine. Accept your differences. People will get on with it. They will get with the program.”
A call to come together
One defining aspect of Morgan’s art is how she creates it just for the sake of creating. In these tumultuous times, that philosophy is important now more than ever.
“In this time, where money is very uncertain, I think that networking should be at an all-time high,…People need to just take the time to take the L on some payments right now during a world crisis and create just to create. Just to intertwine and maybe earn each other’s following, and just uplift each other,” said Morgan.
“Whether you’re Black, White or Asian, we need to work, because we’re in a pandemic.”
Latricia Morgan’s photography can be found on her personal website and her Instagram @theartsyplug, while her jewelry is available @theartsygemshop and on her website.