Light City Baltimore came back bigger and better for 2018. I’m so glad to say that I decided to be apart of everything, too.
I volunteered my free time to be a social media volunteer for Light City and it was quite an experience. Instead of spending one night looking at the exhibits, I spent four nights seeing how different people interacted with each crevice and corner of the popular light festival.
My job along with numerous other volunteers was to capture the evenings’ glory moments. Whenever we saw people enjoying the night, we’d snap photos to share on the Light City social media channel to encourage people who weren’t in attendance to come down. I believed it was a strategy that worked because the outcome was phenomenal. Opening night attendance was so overwhelming, there were rumors of physical altercations swarming the Internet before the night was over.
Last year’s Light City was rainy for me so a lot of pictures were hit and misses. But this year, I had enough practice and sunlight to get a little bit of everything going on.
My favorite spot to shoot was Club Light City, which was the designated area for House, EDM, and Hip-hop artist and dancers to perform throughout the night. So many talented people showed up at this stage sporadically and unannounced. The idea of it being majority freestyle acts made me more intrigued by the area. The section was a party. I spent a lot of my time in the area.
Local DJs, like DJ Who and Kariz Marcel, had the party started. I posted via my Instagram a video of Baltimore dancers performing to music producers Kariz Marcel. I also got some great photos of DJ Who jamming to his own mixes.
http://www.instagram.com/p/Bh_v5SeHEZp/?taken-by=docscastle
My favorite exhibit would have to be awarded to As of Now.
I loved the message behind this art piece because it pays its respects to the history of Baltimore’s black urban community and what it’s like being black owning a row home. In As of Now, Elissa Blount Morehead screenplays a three-generation Black Owned household in a sum of 3 acts. We see a black father, a black mother, and a black son live throughout multiple decades and giving us an idea of an average day-to-day living.
Other exhibits at Light City 2018 were eye-catching, but those that can provoke a deep resignation feeling were big in their presentation like Kelley Bell’s The Herd. A community of inflatable floaties in the not so healthy Baltimore Inner Harbor aims to represent the harbor being a no-swim zone because of its toxic state. What’s supposed to bring folks attention is the fact that the floaties are empty. Nobody is swimming in them.
I took photos of other pieces from artists. View the gallery below.
Did you get a chance to visit Light City this year? Share some of your experiences and photos in comments!
Check out the gallery of Light City Baltimore 2017 on Doc’s Castle Media.