TAJ WASHINGTON: YOU AIN'T A STAR
by Crunchyblackgirl

Taj Washington is a photographer based here in New York City. We choose him as Artist of the Month, not just because he is talented and funny, but because his philosophy on photography fits right into what we think DilateWorld should be about. He has photographed some famous and some not so famous people. He’s about to blow up so don’t say we didn’t try to warn you.

CBG (crunchyblackgirl): What’s your name?

TW: Taj Washington.

CBG: What’s your sign?

TW: I’m a Scorpio and Scorpio’s are very interesting creatures. We are very creative people, sometimes short tempered and we’ll let you know how we feel.

CBG: What’s the first picture you ever took?

TW: The first picture I took was for Black Tail Magazine. (He laughs and grabs the microphone.) I’m only kidding. I’m only kidding.

CBG: Don’t think I won’t print that?

TW: I really didn’t get into photography until about two years ago. I was working at West Side Camera and I noticed a lot of times people of color always get bad pictures [taken of themselves]. They always get you when you’re just waking up, got a liquor bottle in your hand. I used to hate looking at magazines like Word Up! and stuff. They always got a picture of you drinking something or eating a piece of chicken.

I want to represent us in the best light possible. That’s why I decided to start the Brown Fox Project. I wanted to show that we come in all different races, shapes and sizes and that not all of us are light-skinned with green eyes like you see in the advertisements for major department stores. I want to show that we come from the lightest to the darkest, not to say that no one has ever touched on that but whether they have touched on it or not, I haven’t seen it and that’s why I want to do it. I want to try something new and even if it doesn’t work out, I’ll go back to school and be an investment banker. (He laughs.)

CBG: What is the Brown Fox Project specifically?

TW: The Brown Fox Project is my startup photography business. I want to pursue photography, which is an artform that is hard and you struggle sometimes but I have another job besides that. I have to be realistic. You can sacrifice but so much for your art until you say, “I need money” and I’m not maxing out my credit cards. Not everybody’s gonna be Madonna and leave Michigan with $35 and become a star. It doesn’t happen. You become broke and poor but not a star.

I want to showcase different people of color. I want people to see that we are represented and even if people look at my pictures and don’t use me as far as my business, I want them to see them to say, “Wow! We come in so many different shades and we are so beautiful”. A lot of times you see in magazines that we are all stick thin, even in a lot of black magazines like Honey where they should know better. They be like, “We’ll show some body dark skinned with natural hair”, but that’s not enough. Show big girls too. We come in all shapes and sizes and when you don’t see that it really makes me [wonder] why are they excluding that. There is only one magazine that I have really seen that in and that’s Belle and I don’t even see that on the newsstands anymore, so I’m wondering what is going on with that. You don’t need a blonde weave to be beautiful you know. I just want us to be comfortable in our own skin.

CBG: Whose your favorite person you’ve photographed so far and why?

TW: It would have to be Foxy Brown who is very nice. Even before I got a nice Nikon camera, I was using my little $33 camera that I got from the Wiz. (Give them a shout out by the way.) and I used to work for my Uncle at City University and I begged him to let me take off so I could see her and then I finally got to know her. It was crazy because it was someone I liked for a long time and I just enjoyed photographing her.

CBG: Who is the worst person you’ve photographed and why? You don’t have to say the name.

TW: Actually, I have to say I don’t think I’ve come across that yet. As far as photographing somebody who is really bad. There are some people you photograph and they are so difficult that I just won’t even go through it. Or when people tell me how to move the camera and this or that and I say, “No, I’m the photographer”, you know what I’m saying? If you’re a teacher, I don’t tell you how to teach. I try to usually get to know somebody before I shoot them. I want to feel them out and see what kind of aura or personality they have. That just makes it ten times better where you feel like you’re working with a friend no matter who it is.

CBG: Ten years, where do you see yourself? Pie in the sky.

TW: Hopefully showing some of my work at art galleries, being the chocolate version of David LaChapelle, just wanting to be out there showcasing my work. When I first started, I just wanted to shoot regardless. But then I realized there is a market for shooting people of color that hasn’t really been touched. Anybody can take a picture of a Caucasian person and put it up, but I just want to do people of color. Not to say that I am excluding Caucasians or anything, but I want to build my business around the fact that I am good at shooting people of color and I think that is trickier than shooting some … when you photograph someone …

A woman comes to the reception desk where dignan sits listening to our interview and trying to do her job. The woman tells dignan that she is here to see an actor and can she wait in here with us? dignan says yes and she sits next to us. We ask her if the interviewing bothers her and she says no. Taj instantly becomes distracted.

CBG: Go ahead.

TW: I think that even more tricky than when you … (To the woman.) She looks like the old Blair on One Life to Live.

She points to herself and I look over. She is Lindsay Price of 90210 fame.

LP: I used to be on All My Children.

TW: Oh.

She smiles awkwardly. We have scared her and we know it. She sits next to us for the rest of the interview never speaking again.

TW: What was I talking about?

CBG: You were talking about people of color. It was all beautiful.

TW: I wanted to shoot Blacks, Hispanics, Asians. All ethnicities. That’s what I want to build my portfolio and my business on and that’s what I want to pursue.

CBG: Who are some of your favorite photographers?

TW: As far as black and white, Herb Ritts. As far as color, David LaChapelle. Gordon Parks.

CBG: That’s a good one. That’s a good one. Keep it real. I can’t think of any other questions. Hmm … dignan, do you have any questions?

TW: Don’t mention my prison record!

We laugh. He really thinks I won’t put this on the site. We look over at our guest. She might think he is serious.

DN (dignan): Future projects.

CBG: Yeah, anything you want to plug on the website?

TW: I want to do some ads for Hennessey and St. Ides. (He laughs again.)

CBG: Are there any publications that you wouldn’t photograph for?

TW: I like to photograph people in the best situations possible. I think Playboy is tasteful, like when they had Julie Brown in there, they put a nice weave on her. She looked all right. Nothing like Black Gold or Players’ Magazine with people sitting on the toilet. No. No. I think Playboy is a very tasteful magazine but to me, you don’t need to show everything. I think it’s sexier when you don’t show everything. When you’re covered up, like when they had Elizabeth Hurley on the cover of Elle and she was sitting on the beach and she was covered up, it leaves more to the imagination; because once you show everything, there’s nothing left.

CBG: I can’t think of anything else. You have plenty of quotable quotes for me.

DN: Did you ask him his sign?

CBG: He said a Scorpio.

TW: If you had pulled yourself off the Benicio del Toro websites, you would’ve heard me!

We laugh and look over at our guest amazed that she has not laughed once. She continues to sit.

TW: I got a question. Three celebrities I would like to shoot. I would love to shoot Foxy Brown in tasteful pictures, like in a studio, some hot stuff. I would like to shoot Sally Richardson, and I don’t even know her name. She’s in that new movie Head Over Heels. That black model. As far as men, I would want to shoot … hmm … You know what you should ask me. What are my favorite type of pictures?

CBG: Hold up. You can’t think of three men you want to shoot. Do you like shooting women more than men?

TW: Both.

CBG: Why?

TW: Pictures are pictures.

CBG: Is there any dynamic that is different when you are shooting women than men?

TW: I think women in a way are easier because they don’t mind posing. Whereas men are like (groans) They frown a lot and they are uncomfortable because they’re not as used to it. But as far as men …

Lindsay Price stands and walks into the lobby. She does not say goodbye. We know we have scared her. She walks over to a cutie actor that we should not name but who is hot, hot, hot. They do not kiss but he seems happy to see her. We watch this and Taj cannot focus.

TW: Who is that? That’s her boyfriend?

DN: I think so.

CBG: Damn. Lucky girl. Lucky girl.

DN: Why didn’t they kiss? What’s up with that?

CBG: (To Taj.) Come on. Three men.

DN: Three men you want to shoot. Benicio …

TW: No, you did not say Benicio del Toro.

CBG: Is it hard to shoot someone you’re attracted to?

TW: No because I always try to keep it professional. I try to never come across as a dirty pervert. Sometimes it’s funny because if it’s someone you admire or like, it’s strange.

CBG: So name drop, who famous have you photographed?

TW: Janet Jackson, Amel Larrieux, Foxy (Brown), Faith Evans. That’s about it.

DN: I would like to know how you know you are going to photograph someone?

TW: I don’t know. It could be anywhere. On the subway. A couple of weeks ago I was on the train with this guy and he had on a suit that did not fit. You could tell it was somebody else’s suit. He had on these shoes that looked like they had been used three times over but he had this beautiful face and I thought he looked like someone I would love to shoot. There are a lot of people that are open to (being photographed). They feel flattered that you want to shoot them and I always tell them I’ll give them copies of the pictures.

CBG: How do you know where you want to shoot people?

TW: Sometimes you combine the personality, the type of look you are going for. I actually tell people to wear two different outfits that way you can show one extreme to another. That way you don’t pigeon hole somebody into one thing. You want to show they can look rougher than they are or they can also look sophisticated.

CBG: Men you want to photograph?

TW: You know Lauryn Hill and her boyfriend broke up.

CBG: Really!

DN: She’s got two kids.

TW: That’s old (news).

DN: Oh that’s so sad.

TW: She got money. She can hire a nanny. I ain’t gonna tell you what Vibe magazine said [about it]. Hmmm. You know what I do with Vibe. I clip out the ads, especially the ones with black and white people interacting because it’s always something where the black men are surrounding white women. They had a black man sitting on a couch with a white woman pulling down her pants and an ad that said, “Want some.”

CBG & DN: NO! NO!

TW: You know just innuendoes like that and I used to wonder why they had ads like but then …

CBG: Back to you.

TW: I’m doing breaking news stories [here]!

DN: So, I want to know why you should be on DilateWorld?

TW: Because I’m a star.

CBG: That’s going in.

DN: And that’s it.

Lindsay and her man/friend leave and we are pissed. We hate her. We really do. Lots.

Dignan asked about designers and stuff but it is not so interesting and it’s my interview. For the record though, Taj says, “Fendi makes some nice stuff, but champagne taste with beer money never works!” Enough said.

Look at Taj’s work in our photo gallery. If you are interested in seeing some more of his work, using him (professionally that is) or begging him to make you famous, his email address is cocoacaliente@hotmail.com. You can also reach him at (917) 494-2104.