The Love of the King
The artistic evolution of Brooklyn-based photographer, King Texas, is like any love story. A story that starts at a young age as a film photographer, evolves into a feeling of lost connection and finally comes together again with a new understanding, vision and purpose for the future.
[KING] Texas Malika Toussaint-Baptiste is a self-described passionate, heavy-spirited artist; her portraits open a gateway to a moment in time that can never be captured again. It’s hard not to see anything but honesty in her work. “I want everybody to see those aspects of myself when they look at my work, and relate to it as well,“ Baptiste says. Texas first picked up a camera in high school. “I started out in film first and then I went into digital. Definitely got into black and white, and that was really interesting. It was actually really hard.“ She continued her education in photography after high school but felt a disconnect. “I stopped going to school because I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. I felt like I wasn’t connecting to photography the way I wanted to,“ she says.
“I was a kid, I was kind of lazy; I didn’t have any direction. I kind of just wanted to have fun.“ She ended up hanging out at punk shows at the legendary CBGB’s, listening to music and meeting bands. Eventually, Texas picked up her camera again, photographing shows at CBGB’s under the name “That King Texas.“ “I sorted of just dipped into the event scene, which is interesting. ... I think I had my run but, sometimes I do it for friends.“ Around the beginning of 2007, Texas joined The New Pop, a new media magazine featured in URB’s Next 100 list for 2009 and says, “after that things kind of escalated.“ After a “good run,“ she and The New Pop parted ways, with Texas going into a new direction which includes her portraiture and photo-documenting her travels.
King Texas’s recent trip to South America marked a turn in her point of view when a planned trip to Haiti with Yego (founder and Creative Director of 21MC) fell through, giving way to a new opportunity. “My mother called me and said ‘Do you want to see your grandparents?‘ The first time I had seen them was in 2004.“ Texas was instantly humbled by her visit. “My grandfather built his home and he still lives in it. You know, that’s where my mom grew up. And that was just amazing to witness.“
“That trip was an eye opener. It definitely made me realize that I’m meant to travel and document. I feel like that probably my best work and my favorite, which sometimes you can never get the two in one hit.“ Being in a place like Guyana gave way to a new goal. “I’m trying to work with charities so I can get to travel, and tell those stories, and make people realize what reality really is,“ she says.
Over the past few years, King Texas has been collaborating with the Brooklyn-based collective 21st Century Maroon Colony (21MC), representing the Afro-Triangle and the 2/3 world, “If anything, that affiliation is still growing. It’s a very extraordinary brand. it’s very, very extraordinary, to the point where not everyone is going necessarily get it—not everyone is supposed to get it and understand it.“ She’s done two photo shoots with 21MC, including the most recent for their new line that will also be made in to a music video for Zakee Kuduro using stop-motion animation.
Obviously, music is a big inspiration to Texas, it’s what brought her back to her love, fueled her passion, and continues to influence her work, she’s got plans to do a visual interpretation of Melo-X’s acclaimed instrumental remix of Maxwell’s BLACKsummers’night, “I was very inspired by that album in Guyana. ...I think of something everyday, that I want to do.“ In 2010, we’ll get to see the complete Guyana works of King Texas in a book form, through a gallery show, or hopefully both. King Texas is inspired, and with inspiration comes creation, “I want to take my work to a higher level. ...I’m a representation of the people, and I’m doing this for the future, and for our children, because I’m not going to be her forever. ...I feel like at the end of the day, you have to do something meaningful. Something meaningful coming out of my work and my life, and that’s what I want to do for the next 40 years. That’s what I want to do.“
For more of King Texas’s work, go here.
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