Najee Dorsey builds worlds out of fragments. As founder and CEO of Black Art in America, and an artist in his own right, Dorsey has spent nearly two decades using photomontage, layered digital collage built from photographs, textures and paint, to hold onto pieces of Black Southern life that might otherwise slip away. His scenes of juke joints, cotton fields and crossroads carry the weight of memory and migration, while his company has grown from an online platform into one of Atlanta’s most recognized galleries. With a major commission marking America’s 250th anniversary now on display and the Black Art in America Fine Art Print Fair among his latest efforts to bring collectors into the fold, Dorsey spoke about his process, his archive and why he believes preservation itself is an act of resistance.
What is photomontage, and how is it different from a painting or a photograph?
Photomontage is an assemblage and composition of photographic images, textures and paint elements that I incorporate to build scenes that respond to our culture and history. In many of my pieces I take original or vintage photographs, disassemble them and find other images that are complementary to build an original composition. I might get a face from one photograph and an arm from another and juxtapose the body to create an original image. What makes that different from a photograph is that a photograph is a singular image that’s taken, and there is no manipulation of the subjects generally speaking, though you can manipulate color and tone. A painting is painting on canvas or paper. Photomontage is heavily involved artistically to create these original compositions that speak to my technical aptitude, but more so to the cultural storytelling I’m able to do…