Photo by Fadumo Ali
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Although only 31, Bobby Rogers has been one of the most prominent photographers in the Cities for nearly a decade. He’s done big solo gallery shows; he’s worked on staff at arts organizations like Juxtaposition Arts and the Walker; he’s done group exhibitions with his multidisciplinary art and design studio, The Bureau; and he’s currently the senior art director of multicultural style at Target. This summer, he returned to the main gallery at MCAD—his alma mater—with another Bureau show, Grow, As We Are, a series of portraits composed in the historic Black neighborhood of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard (on view until Aug. 5).
Whether documenting a protest or on a corporate fashion shoot, Rogers says he’s trying to both move the viewer and help them retain as much information about his subjects as possible. “The purpose is to bring as much humanity, character, personality, and history within one image,” he says. His ambition in his work is to examine the full complexity of Blackness through an immersive and beautiful aesthetic. “We want to create an entire environment for you,” he says.
Rogers grew up navigating poverty on the south side of Minneapolis. He didn’t even consider art school until his second-to-last semester at South High, before committing to MCAD. “Coming into art school, I think I just had a different mentality,” he says. “A lot of people were like, ‘I do this because I love it—I ain’t doing it for the money.’ Whereas I was like, ‘I’ve been broke my entire life, and art is the only thing I’m good at.’”
When I meet Rogers on a quiet Saturday at MCAD’s gallery, his look—black beanie, checkered shorts, Air Force 1s—is maybe a touch more chill than those of the vacationers he photographed on the island. His team spent weeks on Martha’s Vineyard, shooting all levels of Oak Bluffs visitor: from third-generation cottage owners to much greener tourists there for their first summer. We discussed why the show at MCAD is a full-circle moment for him, how he differentiates his work with The Bureau from his corporate work for Target, and why he’s still not totally comfortable with the concept of vacation.
What inspired you to create this show about Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard’s historic Black neighborhood?
The Fintech evolutionist and philanthropist Kahina Van Dyke invited me to this residency on Oak Bluffs called Inkwell Haven. My first year there, she’d just bought this bed-and-breakfast. At the time, she had a writing residency, and then she invited multidisciplinary artists out.
Was her invitation for work, or was it more of a vacation?
Kahina’s main point was to just introduce Black artists from these different subcommunities—we all maybe knew of each other in some capacity but had never met. None of us made work while we were there. We literally hung out, no drama, just us sitting on the porch rocking, looking at whatever famous Black people that you’re used to seeing on TV just walking around chilling.
Photo courtesy of The Bureau
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From left to right: Fadumo Ali, Desaré Cox, Nolan Mao, and Bobby Rogers of The Bureau at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum opening of Grow, As We Are
Like the Obamas?
The day after we left, Kahina ran into Obama. Not that I was salty, but I was like, Damn, of course.
When did you think this vacation could be a show?
Not until I went back with the team, which was two years later. We found out that out of hundreds of years of documented history, there was only a handful of images containing a Black presence. Because of that, we proposed to bring The Bureau back to continue the archival process of capturing that Black presence.
You grew up in Minneapolis?
Yeah. South side.
Where did you go on vacation as a kid?
I didn’t. Bro, the first time I got on a plane, I was 21.
Do you like going on vacation now?
I don’t even know if it’s vacation. When we do go places, it’s like, What are the art things I can do there?, or What can I learn from there?
Did you grow up working class?
We grew up poor as shit, actually. Grew up all over the city—probably moved every few months. We were homeless a lot. I lived in a lot of foster homes, so that’s why the first time I left the city, I was 21. Because most of the time, it was survival.
“The day after we left, Kahina ran into Obama. Not that I was salty, but I was like, Damn, of course.”
—Bobby Rogers, photographer and activist
Initially this show was for the Martha’s Vineyard Museum. Was it conceptualized for an audience of islanders?
We actually didn’t do it for the Martha’s Vineyard Museum initially—the museum came to us after we started the project. I met the museum director at a film screening and proposed collaborating with them.
How did you get funding?
Out of all the years I’ve applied for art grants in Minneapolis, I maybe got one. So, I stopped applying and just started doing the work. The Bureau came out of being fed up with the nonprofit grant process and the stipulations that come with it. We wanted to create art for [the] community around socioeconomic issues and things we care about without being beholden to a board or a multiyear process. Because we knew that we are more efficient doing it ourselves.
Fed up with the bureaucracy of it?
The bureaucracy of all of it, and the idea of not feeling trusted to do the work that we do, or people not thinking that we’re able to execute it a certain way. So, our approach to projects is to just do them and figure it out later on, because we trust our processes and our abilities.
What was the reaction you were hoping for with this work?
I don’t think we were thinking about the reaction. What drew us in was the need for capturing the history, but also wanting to go back and understand this feeling that I couldn’t explain, because I’d never experienced it in my life. So I was like, “You all better just go”—it was just as important for us, as Black people, to experience this very specific feeling of ease that I wanted to spread through friends and family.
Do you aspire to go back to Martha’s Vineyard for vacation?
Growing up, it was only survival for so long that by the time I got out of college, I was like, Damn, there’s just so much that I don’t know. And once I got through MCAD, I was just like, Bet, now I can do whatever I want. But a lot of that whatever I want was me thinking that I had to now go catch up and educate myself. And I still hold that now, because even though I graduated in 2014 and I had my first solo show in 2017, my mom passed away the day of the artist talk for Blacker the Berry, which just heightened that I-need-to-catch-up mentality.
You graduated in 2014 with a BFA in illustration and design. You weren’t a photographer right away. I didn’t even take photo classes at all.
Trifecta
Three things about Bobby Rogers
- Rogers converted to Islam in 2015. “My life experience was always determined by what I could do for myself,” he says. “And then I learned about community.”
- He helped his family open a Brooklyn Park soul food restaurant, Angelea’s Soul Food Kitchen, named after his mother, who passed away in 2017.
- He was inspired to change mediums by South African photographer Pieter Hugo’s Mia exhibit. “It transformed my ideas about my own artistic abilities beyond illustration.”
So how did you go from that to running the photography studio at the Walker?
I never took photo classes here [at MCAD]. Though, as an illustrator, photography was just part of the process. I’d borrow cameras and take reference photos all the time. But after graduating, I realized that with the cultural climate, illustration wasn’t the best medium for me to make the impact I wanted to have on the community. So, I taught myself how to use the camera, just being out there taking photos at different protests.
Did you become the senior art director of multicultural style at Target before or after the murder of George Floyd?
That came right before, actually. At the time, I was at the Walker, and I just realized the Walker wasn’t able to provide me personally with the resources that I wanted.
In terms of what?
Just in terms of creative freedom and expression.
As their staff photographer, you were taking portraits of the artists who came through the museum?
Yeah. I was photographing visiting artists. I’ve shot all the exhibitions, photographed the permanent collection. They were used to working with photographers who are able to use light in certain ways and maybe weren’t focused on self-expression. Whereas for [The Bureau], we’re always asking, “What are the worlds we can build?” Even within this exhibit, it’s more than what the Martha’s Vineyard Museum envisioned—like, Let’s put these photos on white walls and bring people in; it’ll be beautiful. Whereas our artwork is multidisciplinary; we want to create an entire environment for you. We want to be the set designers and the photographers and the carpenters.
Did you tell Target what you wanted, or did they tell you?
Target recruited me around the time I was feeling a certain way at the Walker. One of the last projects I shot at the Walker was the portrait of Bong Joon-ho, the director of Parasite. He had won four Oscars and came here three days later. And I was like, “Oh, shit, I’m about to photograph the legend Bong Joon-ho.” While I was prepping for that photo shoot, I ended up getting a lot of the materials myself, set designing it, inviting friends to come in and help me shoot it. And that just made me realize that I’ve worked with clients on editorial projects who provide you all the resources you need.
What is the difference between making images for Target and making images for yourself?
So unfortunately, we can’t talk a lot about the Target stuff.
“It was just as important for us, as Black people, to experience this very specific feeling of ease that I wanted to spread through friends and family.”
–Bobby Rogers
Can you tell me what your position means?
They were building this team of art directors who have the creative skill but also specialize within their communities as cultural art producers. So, whether it comes to Black work, Hispanic work, Pride work, whatever, a lot of us have these personal experiences within those communities.
So, you have three ways of working: One for Target, one for The Bureau, and one for Bobby Rogers?
I can do a project where the client has brought in their entire team, and they need me to just come in and help as a photographer or creative director, and I’ll do that. Sometimes the client needs us to be the producers and the creatives of it all. And sometimes Target needs me to be a senior art director. With The Bureau, it’s more specific to engaging communities of color. We’re creating an environment that’s like a cookout. We’re not creating the artwork for artists in the art world and for the gallery to bring their people in. We’re creating it for our people and for the people that we grew up with that have never seen shit like this before.
I had a conversation with your fellow MCAD alum Christopher-Aaron Deanes. He believes the Floyd murder precipitated an awakening for the white community. So, post-Floyd, assuming that part of your audience is white, how has your audience changed?
One of the things that brought us together is knowing that we have audiences in multiple places that sometimes only come together at a Bureau event. And that just means that we have enough weight within the political spaces that we’ve grown up in, that our experiences transcend when we bring in people from the corporate spaces. I think post–George Floyd, a lot of people had a great understanding of what Black Lives Matter meant and an understanding that you can’t keep dissecting art from politics or vice versa. Before, there might have even been hesitation on our part, like, “Would this really work?” Whereas post-2020, we were like, “Even if it doesn’t work, for us it works. Even if the audience is just the people that we know who are interested, we know that it’s important.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
