Ian John Solomon is a Detroit multimedia artist exploring the Black relationship to land and space through image making. As a Detroiter, he has bared witness to the commodification, distortion, and denial of his community’s space. He draws this urban experience together with a passion for Michigan’s wilderness to investigate a connection between the subject and the environment. Armed with little but a Polaroid camera, Ian captures landscape, environment, and community to build a narrative of connection to place.

Long hikes, camping with friends, and moments of outdoor solitude inspire my imagination. I utilize Polaroid instant film as the image develops in the same environment it is captured, allowing the photo to reflect the moment and bear witness to it. The wilderness is my studio, but I explore my images further in my Detroit home and my photography studio at Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills.