Wankke Basiley

I am Wankke Basiley, a New Orleans-based photographer excavating new perspectives of our reality that only I see. Born and raised in the Lower Ninth Ward, I have spent the better part of a decade experimenting with my creative roots. A teenager, drawn to the intermingling of art, culture, and urban life, I used my camera as a tool for comprehending the world around me, discovering a space of solace and escape in the process. While I have worked in the realms of painting, fashion, music, and video, photography has cemented itself at the core of my practice. For me, my camera has become a tool for envisioning a new, and often better, environment for myself and the world at large.

Life behind the lens was instinctual. I could visualize and orchestrate my compositions with ease and even took naturally to the editing process, teaching myself the skills and techniques that unearthed my signature aesthetic style. While I frequently collaborate with musicians, models, and independent clients, my personal artistic practice has become about my own quest to better understand myself and our collective relationship with humanity. As my body of work continues to grow, I recognize that my desire to share my distinctive perspective is insatiable and will remain with me for the entirety of my life.

Delving deeper into the work I create, my art embarks on a mission to bring the hidden emotions that plague our daily lives and translate them into a visual and tangible form that universally resonates. Whether with film or digital photographic methods, harmonious balances of color, plays of light and shadow heighten the drama within the seemingly mundane, and my detailed compositions all elevate the nature of my portraiture. They coalesce into images that expose what lies beneath the surface, the hidden narratives, personalities, and drives that burn within my subjects. In a balance of street photography, candidness, and the cinematic, I resurrect emotionality into a physical form mirroring the energy and feelings these scenes and subjects evoke in me.

My practice is based on notions of authenticity. I am on an unending journey to grow, enhance my character, and discover new ways to be true to myself. This I translate into my work allowing my practice to organically evolve. My art becomes the act of healing and reconciling from my own traumas as well as the uncertainty instilled within us from the pressures and anxieties boiling over within our society today. I create an aesthetic language that transforms my desire to leave a mark on this world, and this same motivation I witness in others who are willing to break down boundaries to achieve their dreams, into captivating images of life in its purest form. These works begin to speak to others, sharing with them a message of overcoming the negativity we collectively face and illuminating the inherent beauty of life.