Oakland Photo Lady: Tales of a 90s Girl
B‑Love’s Guest House
1131 Center St., West Oakland
Saturdays through September
Missy Elliott, younger than you’ve ever seen, hair in deep glossy finger waves with small curls falling on her forehead, is hunched over, smiling, in close conversation with Gina Thompson. Thompson’s stick straight bob with a blonde streak, white suit, and light skin stand in contrast to Missy’s black jacket and dark curls.
This picture, taken and now lovingly held by self-described “hip-hop photo journalist” Traci Bartlow, is one of many treasures the Oakland local has amassed over her last 30 years behind a camera lens, the subject of a combination indoor-outdoor exhibition currently on display. Though it is not part of the current display she has up at her home in West Oakland, fear not: 30 other “photographs of Bay Area 90’s Hip Hop culture” await your inspection, offering a preserved glimpse of the last century’s last decade. The exhibit includes an option of a tour in which Bartlow promises invites visitors to “relive dope moments of culture“and “hear stories of my experience as a hip-hop photojournalist working with local and national record labels, magazines, and recording artists.”
Bartlow’ s downstairs apartment has been a BnB since 2008, around the time Airbnb got started, and she has made the space, as well as her backyard garden, into a art-centered space to share with the community.
Bartlow moved to this patch of West Oakland from a studio apartment on the east side (where she was raised) when she purchased this house. It is a light yellow Victorian surrounded by blooming plants, with a walkway around the side signaling more.
Golden streamers, a sign, and dozens of photographs hang from fence posts and home siding to welcome visitors to the repurposed exhibition space. The mesh metal door to the basement apartment reads “B‑Love’s Guest House,” and you hear old-school hip hop and R&B gently wafting from the space.
When I visited the exhibit, two women, one in a baseball cap and mask, both in blue latex gloves, stood in a back room over larger-than-life glossy photos of intimate scenes from the ’90s in Oakland. Biggie’s, well, big face, stared back at the viewer. The women paused, said hello, then got right back to it — breaking down each photograph, each performer, the backstory of the shot. They shuffled through a few more.
Bartlow explained the Missy Elliott-Gina Thompson photo, which wasn’t part of the official display to one visitor. (See above video and video at the end of the story.) The photo was taken before Elliott rocketed to rap fame, capturing an intimate, unposed moment..
“Gina Thompson was the star. She’s on tour. Missy produced her song,” Bartlow recalled. “Missy had a verse on her album. Missy was kind of like, ‘I’m in the background.’ She didn’t want her picture taken, which is what she was saying. Gina was, ‘Come on, and really encouraging her.”
When Bartlow displayed the photos, people asked her how she was able to capture such revealing glimpses of hip-hop artists.
“I was a fan,” she said. “I was practicing with my camera. I was capturing moments that I saw and that I was inspired to capture. I didn’t wait for them to pose. I jsut pressed the trigger just in their interaction with each other. It’s a beautiful moment.”
After exiting the basement apartment I was greeted again by bright mid-afternoon sunlight and the striking set of photographs Bartlow has put on display for each Saturday for the rest of the month of September in the exhibit, entitled Oakland Picture Lady: Tales of a 90s Girl.
The photos range in size, content, context, subject, framing, and positioning. Some 3x5 black and white prints portray everyday life, scenes on the street.
Others, in high color and warped perspective, are clearly posed, contrived “art.” Yet another piece is a compelling photo collage, presumably comprised of her own work. They are all filled with emotions, pride, and a deep sense of intimacy. It is not always easy to elicit emotion from a subject, particularly street portraits or famous strangers; Bartlow has the touch.
At the end of the alley way, where the garden begins, a small table marketplace is framed from behind by a small greenhouse filled with rubber plants. Sage frames from the other side, a protection.
Bartlow hosts community events here with some regularity, and has been making her “Radiant Bliss” fresh-pressed juices for sale for about five years now, using fresh fruits, ginger, and leaves from her cannabis plants.
It was clear to see the mutual joy and appreciation as one of her regulars, Mares-Sia, came to pick up a pie and juices, while I soaked up the leaf-filtered sunlight and air.
Bartlow’ s photos (and garden) made me hungry for more. More garden kick-backs, more knowing your neighbors, more daily photography, more special occasion photography, and more impromptu or “unofficial” art shows. I feel strongly that we need more of these spaces to share with just support, not pressure, in homey environs that encourage conversations, eating a berry right off the vine, and, perhaps, the curation of a such a space yourself. I did wish for a bit more information or photographic descriptions, but also greatly enjoyed simply immersing myself.
The event runs through the end of the month, tickets can be found here.
