Abstract

Amber N. Ford, a Cleveland-based artist and photographer, is recognized for her extensive exploration of themes such as identity, race, and empowerment. In 2016, Ford received her BFA in photography from the Cleveland Institute of Art and has since exhibited her artwork in various galleries in the Cleveland area. Her work has garnered attention in numerous publications, and she has been commissioned to create public art for notable institutions including the Cleveland Foundation and the Cleveland Public Library. In addition to her community involvement and successful exhibitions, Ford has embraced the role of freelance photographer, finding fulfillment and creative expression within this capacity. Ford discusses how her experiences with art and her community encourage her to use photography as a way to ask questions and spark conversations.

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Interviewee

Ford, Amber N. (interviewee)

Interviewer

Kanewa-Mariano, Makialani (interviewer)

Project

Community-Based Public Art

Date

7-23-2024

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

49 minutes

Transcript

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:00:00] Okay. Today’s date is Tuesday, July 23, 2024. My name is Makialani Kanewa-Mariano with the Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection at Cleveland State University. Today I’ll be interviewing Amber Ford. Thank you so much for meeting with me today, Amber.

Amber Ford [00:00:17] Yeah, no problem.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:00:19] For the record, could you say and spell your name?

Amber Ford [00:00:21] Yes. My name is Amber N. Ford. That is A-M-B-E-R N F-O-R-D.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:00:29] When were you born?

Amber Ford [00:00:30] I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1994.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:00:34] Where did you go to school?

Amber Ford [00:00:36] High school or undergrad?

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:00:38] High school, yeah.

Amber Ford [00:00:39] I went to high school in South Euclid and Lyndhurst at Charles F. Brush High School.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:00:44] Where did you go to college?

Amber Ford [00:00:46] I went to the Cleveland Institute of Art and got my undergrad degree in photography.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:00:52] Do you primarily live in the Cleveland area now?

Amber Ford [00:00:55] I don’t live in Cleveland proper, but I do live in Cleveland Heights.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:00:58] How did you, well, you were born and were raised here in Cleveland area?

Amber Ford [00:01:02] Yeah.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:01:02] Okay. So what’s your current occupation right now?

Amber Ford [00:01:05] Currently I’m a full-time photographer and artist.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:01:09] What year did you begin doing that?

Amber Ford [00:01:12] So I’ve been doing freelance since undergrad, but I went full-time two years ago this August.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:01:21] When did you first realize that you had an interest in art or photography?

Amber Ford [00:01:27] I would say the first time I probably discovered I had an interest in art was probably, like, middle school. And then I first realized I had an interest in photography freshman year of high school when I took my first photography class with Miss Connor.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:01:47] So is photography the main medium of art that you specialize in?

Amber Ford [00:01:50] Yeah, I would definitely say so. Over the years, I have dabbled and experimented in other mediums, but I kind of- Oh, like, my portfolio is mostly photography or at the very least, photo-based work.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:02:08] What themes or styles do you feel like your art would encompass?

Amber Ford [00:02:13] Themes and styles? That’s a good question. Styles I would say I probably go for, I guess, sometimes it changes a little bit depending on project to project because I have my personal artistic practice and I have my freelance business. For freelance, I typically do a lot of, I usually describe it as human-centered photography. So I get hired to do a lot of portraits, a lot of community-focused events, and also, like, speaking engagements and things like that and documenting, like, events. But I feel like, I mean, I guess I document them like a event photographer, but really, like, I think I’m kind of, like, always kind of looking at things, like, from my personal artistic lens, which it’s like I really just kind of like to document things as they are. I do do photojournalism and photograph for national publications when assignments come my way, so I’ve gotten the opportunity to photograph for publications like the New York Times and Washington Post and NPR and the Wall Street Journal and several other publications as well. I would say in my personal practice, when I first graduated from CIA, I really focused on doing portrait-based pod projects, and then I kind of switched gears and more recently have done a lot of projects using the Epson scanner bed as my photographic tool, specifically within my hair series. But within that series, yes, I do photographs. I have also, like, included portraits in that series. I’ve done cyanotypes, which is an alternative photographic process. I’ve done screen printing. What else? And outside of that project with other projects, I’ve also have done sound-based work, photographic murals and more recent or not as more recent, what’s coming up, which is the newest, is I’m going to be doing a two-week residency at Praxis Fiber Workshop [in Collinwood’s Waterloo Arts District]. I’m using their digital looms. I’m going to be doing some photographic work with the digital loom there.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:04:35] Wow, that’s really interesting.

Amber Ford [00:04:37] Yeah.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:04:39] For the publications that you talked about, I know you said the New York Times and the Washington Post and several others. Were they mostly for capturing community events, or was it your portraiture that was featured?

Amber Ford [00:04:49] Mostly portraiture. Yeah, a lot of like, kind of one off portraits. Some articles. The editors will give me a little bit of a shot list and ask me to photograph other things that will illustrate the article as well. And so it’s usually maybe like a portrait of them, the subject that has been interviewed in that article, along with some supporting imagery.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:05:20] So what kind of inspired you to want to become an artist and begin this journey with photography?

Amber Ford [00:05:26] Yeah. So for me, I grew up in a household where kind of, like, number one rule, as the child is that you have one job, which is like, to do well in school, right. And which, you know, I tried to do my best, but I found that no particular subject was my passion. Like, I didn’t love math. I didn’t love reading. I didn’t love, I didn’t love any of it. Like, I was better at some classes than others. Like, I was probably good at environmental science, but, like, I was, like, really crappy in chemistry, or I did pretty well in algebra one, but I did really bad in algebra two, or whatever the case may be. But the one thing that I felt like kept my interest and that I felt like I continued to progress in was when I was taking art classes at Brush. I was super fortunate in being able to take multiple art classes, photography being the first, and me kind of being a creature of habit, I feel like me starting that my first year and then continuing it is one of the reasons why I was drawn to it more, and I think I was the best at. But I took three years of painting, two years of drawing, one year of, like, ceramics, and even, like, graphic design at the time. And when it came down to, you know, ending my, like, high school career, it was like, okay, if I’m gonna go continue my education and go to a four-year university, like, what can I see myself doing, quote unquote, for the rest of my life or until it, like, no longer serves me? And what will give me enough flexibility to kind of, like, switch gears? Because I don’t know exactly what I want to do, per se. And so for- I felt really inspired by my photography teacher. And so photography made the most sense because there was a lot of different avenues that you can go down with photography, whether it was, like, a fine art photographer and really focus on gallery work or become an educator yourself, whether at the high school level or college level, you know, you could do, you know, event photography and wedding photography. And I know that, you know, there’s, like, a conversation where, like, with photography and sometimes the arts in general, like, you don’t really necessarily have to go to school for it. But I think for me, the structure of school, the community of school, and the resources that school brings, it made the most sense to me to go that route, because I just. I didn’t really know where to start, and I didn’t really know what to do. I just knew that what I was doing, I was doing well, and I wanted to continue doing better, getting better at it.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:08:06] So that was the Cleveland Institute of Art, where you kind of majored or focused on photography?

Amber Ford [00:08:10] Mm-hmm.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:08:11] Okay.

Amber Ford [00:08:12] Yep, yep. So my BFA is in Photography.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:08:16] What was your original goal for yourself as an artist? Maybe while you were still in school or even afterwards?

Amber Ford [00:08:23] Yeah, I think at some point, like most photographers, my goal was to be a photographer for the National Geographic and someone like- And I don’t know, it felt like that was the quote unquote success, or that is the top tier of everyone’s, kind of like that’s the one you reach for. And I didn’t necessarily really know why. I think at that time, it was one of the bigger publications that I really knew about, and I just wanted to somehow get myself there, even though I didn’t know what that meant. I haven’t shot for them or anything like that. And in reality, that’s not necessarily my goal anymore. I mean, like, if they called me for assignment, like, I wouldn’t say no as long as it aligns with my schedule. But someone was asking me questions like, well, have you ever gone camping or ever you had to wait for several hours to get a shot and, like, all these things. And I was just like, no. And then it was like, you should dig more deeper and figure out what actually do you want or like and not what people expect. And I appreciated that, appreciated that advice because, yeah, ’cause I really didn’t necessarily know what I wanted. I know that I just wanted to continue searching for happiness within this medium and within art in general. And I always kind of tell people, like, I will continue doing art and making photographs as long as it makes me happy. And then the day it doesn’t, then that’s when I will pivot.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:09:58] When you take photos of more, like, personal- When you’re doing outside of booking shoots and stuff like that, what are the main subjects for your shots?

Amber Ford [00:10:12] Yeah. So outside of specific commissioned work or even particular projects, like personal projects, I call it leisure shooting for me. So I am probably doing more random documentation. I don’t do it that much. I definitely found myself doing it more during the pandemic where I was kind of just, like, taking my little point-and-shoot Ricoh GR II camera on walks with me and document what I was seeing around me. And honestly, that was a really great experience for me because at a time that felt so dark and people felt so lost and didn’t really know what to do. Like, doing something so simple kind of was like a rest, reset. And, like, I found joy in the photographing again without any kind of expectations, which I think not having those expectations sometimes is definitely a weight lifted off your shoulders. And then sometimes, like, I will maybe just randomly just ask a friend and be like, hey, like, I have this, like, really vague idea. It’s like, ask super simple. But I kind of just want to take your portrait in, like, this way. And, you know, if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. And, yeah. So I feel like it’s either kind of, like, more documentary leisure shooting, or it’s like, portrait based work that may or may not see the light of day off of my hard drive. Most of them don’t.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:11:49] So I know you said that sometimes your friends were the subjects in some of your projects. Do you- Does anybody else contribute to your work besides them that, do you collaborate with other artists often?

Amber Ford [00:12:03] I have some projects that I have collaborated with other artists, I wouldn’t say a ton of projects. But currently, right now, up until the end of summer, me and two collaborators did a project that’s on display at the Cleveland Foundation for their first inaugural gallery exhibition. Since being in their new building, they created a kind of, like a community exhibition corridor, corridor exhibition space. And so I collaborated with Shelli Reeves and Layla Cory on that. And we all kind of had different roles within the project, where Shelli collected stories and had conversation, interviews with community members. I then photographed those community members, and then Layla Cory designed the exhibition and then created booklets for each individual resident so that people who are coming to see the exhibition could look at and take these booklets and kind of see a snippet of a larger conversation. And the conversation was about home.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:13:08] Home?

Amber Ford [00:13:08] Mm-hmm.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:13:09] Oh. Thats interesting.

Amber Ford [00:13:09] Yeah.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:13:16] So some of your public art- I know you said you collaborated with the Cleveland for the Cleveland Foundation. How about some of your other public art? Have you ever, with like the LAND studio?

Amber Ford [00:13:30] Yeah. Yeah. I think that a lot of work, especially when it involves photographing people, can be seen as a collaboration, because obviously, with those individuals, like, there is no work, there is no image, there is no art. And so my first public kind of art piece was in 2019. I was an artist in residence with the Gordon Square Arts District. And I photographed people in that community that had ties, either from living there, working there, etcetera, and then created a mural that is on the back of the Capitol Theater building. So, like, if you park behind that building, then you see the mural, and then, actually, that was a lie. That was not my first public art piece. Technically, my first one is just no longer up, and I always forget about it. But, yeah, so with those pieces. And I guess it’s kind of like, what is your definition of collaboration? Where it’s those pieces I’m collaborating with people that I’m photographing, but also there’s collaboration with fabricators in a way where it’s like, I’m not necessarily the one that putting the art up when, like, sometimes, like, on a regular gallery exhibition, like, maybe I am printing the- Like, I am printing the photos myself. Maybe sometimes I am framing those photos, even sometimes I’m putting those photos up. Not necessarily all the time. But, yeah, it’s like, with those- Because those images are printed so large, I kind of need someone who specializes in that work. And so working with fabricators to get those up on the wall. Currently, there’s work up at, I always want to say, Old Brooklyn Library. And I think that’s- Is that the right branch? It might be the wrong branch.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:15:29] I’m not sure either.

Amber Ford [00:15:29] Okay, I have to double check, because at first beginning the project, I kept getting it, the name mixed up with another branch, and I don’t want the wrong branch to be on the record, but, yeah, I worked with Metro Health and LAND studio, who was working with an international organization called Ten Children’s on a project. And I kind of used that opportunity to kind of start a personal project that I had been wanting to do. I am someone that has suffered from asthma since I was in middle school or upper elementary, and then got diagnosed with type one diabetes when I was 19 or 20 and my last year in undergrad. Like many people, I have a very specific type of relationship with the medical system, both like, good and bad. And I have had, you know, I’m not going to say necessarily unique experience, but I had, for a while, wanted to do some type of series that talked about, maybe not necessarily the entire series, talking about those two conditions specifically, but, like, maybe in one image, and then it’s all these images put together talk about experiences that, you know, that really affects someone’s quality of life and whatnot, and what I, as an artist, go about displaying that visually. So with this project that was in collaboration and commissioned by Metro, LAND and Ten Children’s, I created images of still lifes. And each still life kind of represented a different conversation. And then I also created portraits of families that were willing to participate, that had been a part of the process of telling their story and gathering inspiration that ended up, ended up – what’s the word? – inspiring a play that was made. So the whole larger project was our exhibition put on by me, a play that was created and put on at Playhouse Square, and then a documentary that was created by a professor and assisted by students at CSU. So back to the art exhibition Out of Reach, which ended up specifically becoming a public art piece on display for a year at a library on the west side. That was a triptych, which is three images put together to create one piece that pointed to the conversation of food apartheid and food insecurity. And, you know, just the lack of accessibility and a lot of neighborhoods, specifically neighborhoods of color in Cleveland, all the way to, like, having the conversation of maybe, like, if you see the image that’s like, the left side of the image, and then the middle of the image kind of talks about, like, okay, even if those neighborhoods do have access to food, a lot of times they’re not even necessary quality food. Like, I found myself when I was living in Asiatown, which is, like, probably like, right outside downtown that I really like the grocery store Aldi’s. Like, it is affordable. It is great. Not all Aldis are made equal. I go to the Aldi’s kind of, I can’t remember if it’s the Hough neighborhood or what was the actual neighborhood called, but I feel like I found myself, like, shifting through produce. And the produce looked real sad, the produce looked real beat up. But then I go maybe somewhere on the west side, or even maybe go back to my, like, suburban neighborhood farther east in South Euclid. And I find it, like, feels like ten times different to, like, you know, you then go into those areas, and then for the right or third image, you’ve kind of seen that very beautiful produce, maybe even farmers market produce, that feels much more out of reach, that feels much more expensive. And that- And just kind of starting the conversation of, like, why? Why is that? You know? And I find myself, like, using photography as a way to ask questions versus me trying to solve problems. I see my photography often as conversation starters because I do not have the answers. And I think one thing that sometimes people fault, that we fault as people, it’s just like not having those honest conversations or not asking enough questions and just kind of just talking with each other. And maybe a solution, or whatever the case may be, may hopefully be inspired by looking at the art. I don’t know. Yeah.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:20:50] I feel like you might have just answered this question.

Amber Ford [00:20:53] Okay.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:20:54] But how do you think then your work kind of connects you, the artist, to the meaning of the art, and then to the community as a whole?

Amber Ford [00:21:03] Yeah, I feel like, for me, I find that there’s always going to be connection, because I am- Whatever conversations I’m trying to have within my art comes from a personal place. And I feel like I go about it in a more- And I go about it in a way where it’s like, yes, yes, the topic comes, stemmed from a personal place, but it is a topic that really hits the larger audience and anyone can enter into it, right? So it’s like, I have the work that I’m working on with the still lives that I’m still trying to articulate how I want to talk about it. I don’t really know what this series is called, but I’m kind of describing as, like, am I taking different social determinants of health and seeing how I can visual, like, put that in a, in a visual language for people to see, or even the- My hair scapes and talking about hair that comes from a very personal place as a Black female in America, but, like, we all have hair in some way, shape, or form, or have some type of relationship with hair. So, yes, like, it is a very specific conversation, but in theory, most people, if not all people, can find connection or find their self in it or find their self in the conversation. I, and I don’t know how sometimes, I don’t know how this sounds, but I usually say to people, and this is just really just me being honest, it’s like I’m first making work for myself, and then I am making the conscious decision to share that work with the world. And, yes, I do hope that people connect with it, but if they don’t, they don’t. And it’s like, I don’t think it’s my problem to solve that, you know, because I don’t necessarily look at it as a bad thing. Like, yes, it’s great if someone’s like, oh, my God. Like, this reminded me of this, and I saw this connection. This made me think of this and whatnot. But if it doesn’t, like, that’s also okay because, yeah, that’s just like life, I guess.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:23:25] So to go back a little bit to your hair scapes, if that’s okay. We can talk about that a little more. I know you said it started with your own personal relationship with your identity.

Amber Ford [00:23:34] Mm-hmm.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:23:35] How. How do you want that to portray then, to the public?

Amber Ford [00:23:38] Yeah. So I really looked at the hair scapes when I first started, honestly, as my own way of doing self portraiture in a, I guess, kind of a unique way. Don’t know if other people see it like that or not. I think that when you know more about how the series started, you can really see that. And now it has kind of grown and just through kind of, like, studio visits and conversations and, and people with different backgrounds have, I think, really opened up my eyes of the possibilities and the other avenues and conversations that can be had with that work. Like, most recently, I was talking with a person who, a lot of her work is made with paper, maybe a little bit of printmaking, but a lot of paper. And her formal background is in architecture, and she is a White woman, and so her experience is like, right, it’s different than mine, but she saw the abstract art in it and really made connections for me with abstract painters that I may have never, would have never came across if it wasn’t for having this conversation about my work with this person. And that is, I think, the beauty of community and the beauty of opening up your art to interpretation, to critique and things like that. Because, yeah, there are just some, some connections or things that I would have never thought of, because it’s like, yeah, I just, I just would have never- It’s like one of the things, like, you don’t know until you know. And with that and having those conversations, I think it then just kind of continues to spark more inspiration to explore and to expand. And then also, it helps me put my work in the larger canon of art that I didn’t even know that I could fit into. Like, I had, like, vaguely heard, like, people, like, say, like, you know, oh, like, I didn’t even know these were photographs at first. Or, you know, sometimes they look like drawings. Sometimes they look like paintings, you know, because they’re very, like, textural and sculpture in a way, even though it is a 2D medium, you really have to, like, kind of look up close and see those kind of little details and things like that. But I hadn’t- I hadn’t even really considered until, like, I would say, like, yet more recently in conversations was, like, how. How does this photographic series or this part of this photographic series fit into or can be inspired on the back end from abstract painting? So, yeah. Did I actually answer the question?

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:26:24] Yeah, you did.

Amber Ford [00:26:24] Okay.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:26:27] In the community you grew up in, I know you grew up in the Cleveland-ish area. Were there any works of public art that you can remember specifically?

Amber Ford [00:26:36] Yeah, I’m gonna be honest with you and say no, because I feel like I didn’t. I, like my immediate family, like, no one’s into art. Right? I feel like my mom and my sister are not necessarily into art, but they are in more art spaces now because of me. And in reality, growing up, I would say probably my parents didn’t even- My parents didn’t really realize I was into art until I was about to go to college and we were having those conversations, because, really, it was just like, all of that kind of stayed at school. And so for the first eight years of my life, I grew up on the border of Cleveland Heights and East Cleveland, went to a Catholic school for K through 2nd, and then I moved to South Euclid, where, yeah, I finished out the rest of grade school and things like that, but I don’t necessarily remember. Maybe they did, and I just don’t remember because I do have a terrible memory. I get told all the time where it’s like, you know, maybe they did take me to, like, the museum, and I just don’t remember. Or I would see public art, but I just don’t remember and stuff like that. But I would say, like, I really, like, didn’t start thinking about those things. And outside of, like, whatever, I was just creating personally and what was in the classroom until probably, like, I was, like, into college, sadly, or maybe not sadly. It’s just- It’s just the reality of it.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:28:06] Do you think if maybe seeing or not seeing the public art in your community maybe pushed you in the direction of wanting to create creative spaces in your community?

Amber Ford [00:28:17] Yeah, maybe. I think, yeah, I would say, like, to an extent, and also just, like, going from. I would say, like, by the time I was in high school, like, Brush was a more diverse place. Like, when we first moved in the early 2000s, it was a little bit of a culture shock. It was predominantly White, and I came from a pretty much all-Black school, with the exception of some teachers not being Black or of color, and, like, one non-Black student in, like, a grade that was not mine. Right. And so that was, like, a little bit of a change. But as I continued through the years, it got more diverse. And then kind of going back then going to college and it being less diverse again, you know, had, like, one or two teachers of color really gravitated towards two ladies that I met when I was entering into CIA who were in the financial aid office, Caprice and Dolores. They, like, felt like my aunts, and I just felt like I, like, in this space, I was new and uncomfortable. Like, they were familiar. And so, like, just developing that kind of relationship with them where it’s like, I could just stop by and say, hey. And they would ask me about school and same thing with the kind of the security guards, which were, like, mostly Black and things like that. And, like, in undergrad, like, those were my people. And, yeah, it just kind of, I feel like, took time to kind of, like, really see where it’s like, oh. Like, I was introduced to a lot of things, like, later than I probably should have, right? And it’s just because of the kind of, like, the education system that has been created for us and then going into a field that was unfamiliar to my parents and maybe them not knowing how to foster that for me, which was like, okay, like, love my parents. They are amazing. They did the best they could, and I think they did a great job at the cards that they were dealt. Right? Like, I kind of, like, came out as a curveball where it’s like, I’m gonna be an artist, and they’re like, okay, it’s like, we’ll support that. Don’t really know, like, what to do, but, you know, have always kind of just like, at the very least, that they can do much for me. Like, made me know that they, at the very least, could be my safety net for if I were to fall and that they were there to help pick me back up. And, yeah, so it’s just like, yeah, I’m rambling, but, yeah, just kind of, like, learning as you go and then, you know, like, you don’t- As an artist, as a young artist, like, there are some young artists that, like, know their voice kind of, like, very early on and know what they want to talk about. I don’t think I was necessarily that person, or I didn’t see it until later. And it was, I would say really it was really going into my fourth year that there was, like, a shift in, like, me going from, like, I just want to do portraits and people-based things to, like, me having a more specific conversation about Black people. I ran into someone from high school in a grocery store, and the conversation was, like, fairly quick, but we hadn’t, because we haven’t- We were, like, just passing each other and whatnot and, and I just vaguely remember him, like, saying, like, how he hadn’t been home in a while and someone has passed and, like, now he feels like his language is changing to see you later to be safe, because him, like, being away at school and, you know, we were seeing just, like, a lot of, like, Black men dying in the news. I feel like I was seeing more, more in our faces, you know, with camera phones and, you know, people posting things online, that there was, like, kind of this shift. And then, for me, it kind of prompted this importance in doing work based on my experience. And so, like, my senior year, my BFA, I tied it in between, and I decided to- It was kind of like a three-ish part BFA where one part was photographing Black men in my life, whether there was family, friends, or classmates, and then another one, and then the other two were both screenprint-based. But I kind of, like, wanted to focus on this conversation of, like, we see Black men in the media at these two extremes, right? Where, like, you see the LeBrons, you see the Kobes, you see the, the boys that made it, the glorified yada, yada, yada. And then you see the Black man died because of this and this. And the police mistaking this thing for a weapon and, you know, all these things, but, like, feeling, like, where is the kind of, like, mundane but also positive focus on those men that are in between, that are the just living their life and having their nine to five, like, my father as a postal worker or my friend who was getting his degree in industrial design and just wanting to see those images of those men before a possible, quote, unquote demise or an untimely passing. And just, I mean, yeah, I’m kind of- I feel like I’m rambling at this point, but so, yeah, so I feel like that was kind of, like, really the start of, like, me stepping out of I am doing work for an assignment versus, like, I have, I have the next year to do something that I want to do. And, like, what is that thing I want to talk about and work on for the next year that can potentially be the stepping point to, like, what my career will look like once, once I leave this institution?

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:34:40] So that project was when you were still in school, you said last year?

Amber Ford [00:34:44] Yeah. Yeah.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:34:45] And what year did you graduate again?

Amber Ford [00:34:47] 2016. Yeah.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:34:50] So since then, I’m curious just how, if any, if that’s grown, specifically that project that you’re working on or, you know, built off of that project?

Amber Ford [00:35:01] Yeah, I built off it for a little bit after undergrad. And honestly, like most people, not even just art students, feeling extremely lost after having this very structured and intense life for four years and not really knowing how to navigate my own particular practice afterwards, especially having to support myself in a different way and getting a quote unquote day job. And my day job, luckily for me, was in the arts. I was teaching an after-school program with the Cleveland Print Room for a year. And so I was working with kids, mostly Black and Brown kids, but not necessarily all. We were working with different sites in Cleveland, and it was a free program. So whatever student – from, I think we were working from, like, 5th through 12th grade – could and wanted to join. They can join the program. But, yeah, I was definitely feeling a little bit of lost and more waste and won. And so I did work on that project for a while. I don’t necessarily- I didn’t show necessarily a ton of the image. I didn’t know. I didn’t show a lot of the images, like, a lot afterwards. The core images from the original project, I did show a few times, and even a part of that project is now in the permanent collection at the Worthington Yards building on, like, the third or fourth floor, I cannot remember, but they purchase artists, or they purchase art from local artists to furnish the halls of the building. And they also have a first floor gallery space that is ran by Liz Loggins. But I forgot your original question. What was it?

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:36:50] It was just kind of like how the project from college expanded.

Amber Ford [00:36:52] Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I didn’t- So, yeah, I didn’t expand it a lot or for very long, but I did shift gears and did. I did work on a project for a little bit of time called By Force and by Choice, where I was another portrait project. I’m focusing on immigrants and refugees that have resettled in Cleveland. And each and accompanied of each image would be like a little blurb. Sometimes it would be a quote from our conversations while photographing. Some may just be kind of like me summarizing the experience or me, I don’t know, trying to come up with this poetic or whatever the case may be, to accompany that image. And so through kind of like the title and these little blurbs, like having snippets of these stories. And then I showed that work in a gallery that is no longer existing, but was housed in a gallery which was housed in 78th Street Studios for my first solo exhibition, which was really exciting. And with that show, we, we raised money and then, and then donated that money, me and the gallery owner, Layla Cory, who was now a friend and a collaborator of mine. And, yeah, so did that. And, yeah, just other things since. Yeah.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:38:31] So right now, are you currently working on a collaborations or just projects by yourself?

Amber Ford [00:38:38] Yeah, so I’m still, I’m slowly but surely between freelance and just various things. Working on the Still Life project, I, last year I did, like, three images, and this year I decided I’ve been revisiting two of those images and kind of updating them and then figuring out, like, what is the rest of the imagery going to be in that series? Don’t know how, like, big it’s going to be, but I also have been working on applying for grant opportunities in order to fund that project. Because what is different from- One of the things that’s different from this project than my portrait project is that, like, I’m purchasing things to, like, create the imagery versus, like, I’m using a friend and we’re kind of just, just roll with, like, what we have. And so, like, that is, like, a very low-budget way of creating work. And this one is not, not so much. Not saying, like, every, every work has to cost hundreds of dollars, but I am, like, kind of, like, sourcing the material. And so I’m hoping to get some funding for that over the next couple of months. Hopefully I’ll hear back. And what else am I doing? I’m working on a commission project, too, that will take place for the next year that I really, unfortunately, can’t disclose much information about that one, but it will be a public art piece that will be displayed in a public building. And, yeah, and I’m hoping to go back and get my masters in 2025.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:40:24] What do you want to focus on for your masters?

Amber Ford [00:40:26] So it really just kind of depends on the program. Some programs are specifically photography programs that I have applied for, and some of them are interdisciplinary programs, so they’ll just be MFA or masters in fine art. So. But either way, go. I will. I want, regardless if it’s a photo specific program or in a disciplinary program, like, I want my time there to be more interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary. I want more to be able to have the room to explore and expand and do whatever medium makes the most sense for whatever conversation I want to have. Right. And so, yes, I’ll always come back to photography, but, like, similarly to the residency at MOCA. Like, I thought about doing photos first, and then I was like, actually, that doesn’t make sense. And it ended up being an audio installation that included text. So I want to be able to really spread my wings and do more installation type work if at all possible. And I’ve seen a couple of programs that I feel like will really nourish that curiosity and wanting to dream bigger. And so that is really what I’m focused on when picking a program as well as a program that is fully funded, because, honestly, school is getting more and more expensive and feels more and more [un]obtainable without going in tremendous amounts of debt, and I refuse to go into debt for something that I really do want but don’t actually feel like I need. And so finding a program that values and has the funding to support their students, not only with a tuition support package that covers tuition in its entirety, it would be really great to also go into a program that also gives students a stipend to help with their living costs. Because obviously, if I go to school outside of Cleveland specifically, but, like, Ohio, the cost of living typically goes up anywhere from here and to not, not working during school feels damn near impossible. But if a school will be able to give a stipend that will help with that, that would be amazing in order to, like, be able to focus on my artistic practice, because that is one thing that I have not been able to do since graduating undergrad, and even, even in undergrad, because I had to work a lot during undergrad, both with a part-time job outside of school and work-study during school. So just trying to find a way to, like, really just, like, I don’t want to. I’m gonna cut out the noise and just kind of like, as much as I love my freelance building business, and I love working with clients, and I love how doing freelance introduces me and brings me in contact with so many different walks of life. Like, last week, I did photos for WWE and they were doing, like, these community things, and it wasn’t like, you know, the guys in the ring, but it was just like, if I wasn’t doing freelance, like, that would have never happened. And that was, like, really cool, right? And, but it’s like, what would my art look like and where would my art practice be if I were, have been able to, like, focus on that a lot more? Because, like, because before two years ago, not only was I doing freelance, doing art, but I was also having some type of day job, whether it was part time or full time. So it’s just like, always kind of like a juggling act, and something always unfortunately falls to the wayside. It’s like you try to figure out the balance, and I feel like there never really is any. And the reason why I end up dead going full-time freelance, because for the first time since graduating 2016, the one thing that felt like it wasn’t getting most attention was the day job. And luckily, I was working at a company that I met through freelancing. Like, I took the portraits of the co-founders of this company, and they first, they knew me first and foremost as an artist and photographer and really supported that and knew that working for them would not be a forever thing. And when it came, like, my time came that I needed to step away from that company, they were extremely supportive. You don’t, like, find that very often. And I love them and I am still in contact with them. I go through the Christmas party and I still maintain my relationship with them because I love them a lot.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:45:06] What advice would you want to give to artists who wish to design creative spaces in their own communities or just, you know, kind of do what you were talking about? There’s like a whole collaboration, like a process with the whole community as a whole. What kind of advice would you give to those artists?

Amber Ford [00:45:21] Yeah, yeah. I would say my advice would be to just, I know it sounds so silly, but just do it right where it’s, like, where there’s a will, there’s a way. And in all reality, you can’t necessarily just wait on, like, the perfect moment or the, the ideal institution or whatever to fall in your lap. Like, I see a lot of people do a lot of DIY spaces and they become these amazing projects and things like that. And it’s just like, if you have an idea, like, find your community and figure out how to bring that idea to life. Like, oh, man. Like, I love my support system. My friends that, like, will just sit down with me and, like, workshop things where I’m just like, I’ve been thinking about this thing in my head for too long and I need to get it out. And if you have questions, comments or concerns, like, I just need help kind of getting through it and, yeah, and that’s how some of these projects are, like, really, like, kind of growing out of. But I will say in Cleveland specifically and hopefully in other, obviously, cities, that more and more organizations are really kind of putting more focus on their local artists and figuring out ways to support their local artists, whether it’s to do grants, whether it’s to do residencies or exhibitions, or just giving them the opportunities if they want to do their own programming. I think programming is becoming, but not just like the classic, like, artist talk. It’s like, really, I think getting a lot of like the stage where it’s like, well, what do we want to do with people, right? It could be a collage workshop. It could be a cyanotype workshop. It can be like, whatever the, whatever the thing is and just, like, doing it and having fun with it.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:47:23] Is there anything else you want to add before we wrap it up? Anything that you think is important to know about you as an artist or just you as a person?

Amber Ford [00:47:32] Um, I was like, I don’t know.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:47:40] Anything you wanted to add in the end that I didn’t get to, that I didn’t ask.

Amber Ford [00:47:43] Yeah, this is not necessarily important, but I think it’s funny that people who have known me over the years and have seen me grow and things like that and will make these really great comments and be like, how are you doing stuff like that? Or whatever, and I’m like, I don’t know, but people fail to realize or even, I guess, remember where it’s like, I’m actually a very shy person and I am, I feel like an introvert by nature and extrovert by force because of the, because of the field I went into. And I guess I kind of going back to the advice for, like, those artists that are introverts and things like that. When you are doing what you love, it doesn’t feel like work, and it makes those, what feels like can be hard situations even easier. So I feel like I come off as a, as an extrovert because I have been able to surround myself with such amazing people that make it comfortable for me to be me and express myself and talk more. And then- But when I am drained, I will go back into my hole, and I do need to recharge. And then I will reemerge a day or two later. Yeah. But. Yeah.

Makialani Kanewa-Mariano [00:49:04] Well, thank you so much again for being meeting with me. The time is now 3:29 p.m. and I’m going to stop the recorder and conclude the interview with Amber Ford. Thank you so much.

Amber Ford [00:49:14] Thank you.

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