THE CENTER AWARDS: Project Launch Grant: David Walter Banks

THE CENTER AWARDS: Project Launch Grant: David Walter Banks by Marisa LuccheseJune 15, 2022

LOS ANGELES, California, Oct. 1: Ron Finley, pictured here in his home garden, grew up in the food desert, or food prison as he refers to it, of South Central Los Angeles, and has become an activist and powerful proponent of urban gardening. In 2010, Finley dug up a strip of land between his house and the street and started planting fruit and vegetables. It was illegal to plant these on the land between the sidewalk and curb but he got the city of Los Angeles to change the law. The “Residential Parkway Landscaping Guidelines” were changed to end fines for vegetable gardens within the strip owned by the city. In early 2013, Finley gave a TED talk on his progress as a "guerrilla gardener," the dangers of food deserts, and the potential for his program to improve quality of life. He said in the talk, "If kids grow kale, kids eat kale; if they grow tomatoes, they eat tomatoes." The talk has received over two million views on the TED web site, and attracted attention from numerous celebrities and collaboration proposals from corporations. After his TED talk, Finley developed a gardening training facility under the name of The Ron Finley Project in South Central Los Angeles. His guerilla gardening efforts have had modest success in persuading city officials to cooperate, but remain officially illegal under city code. In 2016, The Ron Finley Project was told they had to buy the property hosting their garden for $500,000, or it would be shut down. A fundraising campaign ensued. The campaign got the attention of natural food companies, and the original $500,000 goal was surpassed. Finley refers to himself as a "gangsta gardener", explaining, "Gardening is gangsta. Drugs, robbing—that's not gangsta. Building community—that's gangsta. I'm changing the vernacular.”

©David Walter Banks, Ron Finley, urban gardener and activist, in his home garden in South Central Los Angeles.

Congratulations to David Walter Banks for being selected for CENTER’s Project Launch Grant recognizing his project, Practice Resurrection. The Project Launch Grant supports a complete or nearly completed documentary or fine art series. The grant provides financial support and platforms for professional development opportunities for one photographer. The Grant includes a $5,000 cash award, Mentorship, Professional Development Workshop Admission, Complimentary participation and presentation at Review Santa Fe, Group Exhibition of Award & Grant Winners at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Project Publication in Lenscratch & Feature Shoot, and inclusion in the CENTER Image Library & Archive.

JUROR: Grace Deveney, Associate Curator of Photography & Media, Art Institute of Chicago shares her thoughts on the selection:

It’s been an honor to review the submissions to the Project Launch Grant because it allowed me to engage such a wide range of photographic processes from across the globe. I was amazed by the incredibly thoughtful concerns and inquiries that motivated the nearly 330 submissions and learned so much about the ways artists and documentary photographers are allowing us to see and better understand the effects of climate change, oft-overlooked communities, identity, and making a place for oneself in the world.

David Walter Banks is the recipient of this year’s Project Launch Grant, which will support the body of work Practice Resurrection. The lush photographs celebrate people committed to sustainable agriculture and the lands and crops they keep. The series is shaped by the dire stakes of climate change, and the need to enact alternatives to industrial farming. The photographs left me feeling energized by the difficult tasks at hand, and grateful for a glimpse into the work of those making changes in how food is grown.

SOQUEL, California, Oct. 27: A view of the farm stand at Everett Family Farm in Soquel, California. Rich and Laura Everett started Everett Family Farm not only to provide great organic produce for their community but to provide a beautiful healthy environment to raise their three daughters - Hailey, Hannah and Annie. Laura has a family background in viticulture and Rich in business. They purchased the farm from third generation farmers and have worked to preserve and protect the land and surrounding riparian areas. They're proud members of CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers), becoming certified growers in 2001. Rich and Laura have really focused on and expanded the fruit orchards. They even have "his" and "hers" orchards: Laura's focusing on heirloom apples for cider, and Rich's on the uber popular Honey Crisp. The Everetts are also very involved with cultivation and growth of the next generation of farmers. When the Everetts started farming, they had a vision to not only "grow" the best produce possible but also to "grow" new farmers; understanding that the planet desperately needs young farmers to replace the aging population of todays farmers. Everett Family Farm has been a place for young farmers to get their hands dirty as they learn and grow their craft. EFF allows the farmers the advantage of managing a farm without the financial risk or capital investment. Hopefully learning from their mistakes before starting their own farms. It's a two way street because EFF has benefitted from each and every one of these dedicated farmers. In fact the farmers have nicknamed EFF, "the great incubator farm."

©David Walter Banks, A view of the farm stand at Everett Family Farm, aka., “the great incubator farm” in Soquel, California.

Grace Deveney is a curator and art historian. Previously, she was the Associate Curator of Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow, a New Orleans-based contemporary art triennial (2021). Until 2019, she was Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Exhibitions at the MCA include Christina Quarles (2021) Direct Message: Art, Language, and Power (2019) and Groundings (2018; with Tara Aisha Willis), as well as presentations of the work of Paul Pfeiffer, Amanda Williams, and Ania Jaworska. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Art History at Northwestern University.

David Walter Banks is a photographer and artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. His work ranges from stylized conceptual portraiture to environmental-issue based documentary photography. In his free time he spends as much time as possible in nature with his wife, pups, and camera.

Banks has been interviewed by PDN, Rangefinder, TIME’s Lightbox, aPhotoEditor, and CNN about his work. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection at the New York Public Library.

Banks has lectured at Western Kentucky University, Ohio University, Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, University of Miami, SCAD, UNC Chapel Hill, and UMass. His clients include Rolling Stone, TIME Magazine, Apple, The New York Times, Toyota, The Wall Street Journal, Target, The Washington Post, Variety, and Red Bull among others.

Follow David on Instagram: @davidwalterbanks

Brinson Banks Light Test Kendrick Brinson and David Walter Banks in Los Angeles, CA April 20, 2021

Portrait of the photographer David Walter Banks

DAVENPORT, California, October 29: Fields leased for growing culinary herbs by Jacobs Farm Del Cabo from Swanton Pacific Ranch in Santa Cruz County, California, outside the town of Davenport. Jacobs Farm Del Cabo is a collection of organic farms dispersed along the western edge of California and Mexico, dedicated to growing fresh, high quality, delicious food without damaging the environment. All together, they farm nearly five thousand certified organic field and greenhouse acres. As one of the first certified organic farms, they remain passionate about their desire to benefit people, communities, and the environment for generations to come. They believe in promoting health from the ground up. Healthy soil produces healthy crops, which in turn allows for a healthier lifestyle. Organic farming is also a healthier choice for farmers, their families, and their communities. They are vigorous promoters of environmental, social, and economic sustainability because these practices ensure the ongoing health of our planet and its people. In 1986, they joined forces with a group of struggling subsistence-level farmers in Baja California. Together they formed the Del Cabo Cooperative, helping these farmers improve their organic farming practices and gain access to international markets. The result is a thriving and sustainable farming economy that has lifted these farmers out of poverty and transformed them into vibrant contributors to their communities. Their leadership role in the organic farming industry and their passion for improving organic farm practices have always given them a clear direction. Creating and sustainably growing a business using their unique combination of California Farms and the Baja-based cooperative, continues to show how the organic farm movement can benefit humanity far into the future.

©David Walter Banks, Fields leased for growing culinary herbs by Jacobs Farm Del Cabo in Santa Cruz County, California.

Practice Resurrection

Food production has potential to be one of the core solutions in the battle against climate change and environmental pollution, the protection of biodiversity, and creation of a more equitable society. Half of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture. Food production and distribution is responsible for over a quarter of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, and is the leading cause of deforestation and associated biodiversity loss.

Industrial farming practices damage soil progressively, pollute our environment, and lead to the extinction of plant and animal species at an alarming rate. Agriculture and aquaculture are a threat for 24,000 of the 28,000 species currently threatened with extinction.

As the global population continues to rise, so do our demands for food and water. The current system is unsustainable, and ineffective in a world where 690 million people went hungry in 2019. We stand at a crux in history in which we have the chance to heed science, and forge a different path. We have the opportunity to overhaul a system that has the same amount of constructive potential as it does destructive.

Our system has failed us, but there is another way. One of resurrection. Resurrection of our soil and the biodiversity of our lands. Resurrection of our communities, our connection to the land, and our physical well-being. A way that nourishes our bodies while saving our earth, and leaves no one behind. This project is a celebration of those who share that vision and dare to act on it.

SEBASTOPOL, California, September 21: Poet Claire Meuschke harvests greens at Radical Family Farms in Sebastopol, California. Radical Family Farms was founded in 2019 as the first no-spray mixed-Asian vegetable CSA (community supported agriculture) farm in the Bay Area. Their farming practices go ‘beyond organic’ with their no-till, regenerative methods. They farm 1.5 acres in Sebastopol, California, a small town in west Sonoma County. They are led by farmer-owner Leslie Wiser, a queer, first-generation Taiwanese/Chinese/German/Polish American. The produce curated on the farm is a personal exploration of identity. Deemed ‘Identity Farming,’ the main mission of the farm is to reconnect to lost heritage while regenerating the land. Radical Family Farms is the actualization of a 22-year-old dream held by Wiser after spending a season in college farming in Alaska.

©David Walter Banks, Poet Claire Meuschke harvests greens at Radical Family Farms in Sebastopol, California.

HILMAR, Calif., March 27: Glen Anderson in his blooming almond orchard at sunset. Since 1980 Glen Anderson and his wife Leslie Anderson have farmed 18 acres of almond orchards in Hilmar, California, and were the first Certified Organic Almond Farm in the San Joaquin Valley. A pioneer in organic farming, Anderson has spent 40 years dedicated to farming without the use of synthetic chemical products such as fumigants, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers in his orchard. In addition, no genetically engineered products are used at any time. Anderson believes these products would disrupt the natural balances established over decades of organic farming. Anderson has staked his beliefs and livelihood in the health of the soil and development of biodiversity on his land. By encouraging earthworm and microbial activity, they foster the incorporation of twigs, compost, and rock dust into the top layers of our soil. This process results in humus-rich soil that’s one of the fundamentals of good organic farming. This microbially-rich living soil also retains water allowing for a conservation of this valuable resource while also creating greater tolerance of drought and flooding than land farmed using chemicals. Anderson believes that for his customers, choosing organic is a decision to buy food that is good for the earth as well as their bodies.

HILMAR, Calif., March 28: A nearby river confluence, part of the irrigation district that feeds through canals for flood irrigation of the orchards at Anderson Almonds. Since 1980 Glen Anderson and his wife Leslie Anderson have farmed 18 acres of almond orchards in Hilmar, California, and were the first Certified Organic Almond Farm in the San Joaquin Valley. A pioneer in organic farming, Anderson has spent 40 years dedicated to farming without the use of synthetic chemical products such as fumigants, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers in his orchard. In addition, no genetically engineered products are used at any time. Anderson believes these products would disrupt the natural balances established over decades of organic farming. Anderson has staked his beliefs and livelihood in the health of the soil and development of biodiversity on his land. By encouraging earthworm and microbial activity, they foster the incorporation of twigs, compost, and rock dust into the top layers of our soil. This process results in humus-rich soil that’s one of the fundamentals of good organic farming. This microbially-rich living soil also retains water allowing for a conservation of this valuable resource while also creating greater tolerance of drought and flooding than land farmed using chemicals. Anderson believes that for his customers, choosing organic is a decision to buy food that is good for the earth as well as their bodies.

©David Walter Banks, A nearby river confluence, part of the irrigation district that feeds through canals for flood irrigation of the orchards at Anderson Almonds in Hilmar, California.

DAVENPORT, California, October 29: Danielle Loustalot, marketing manager for Jacobs Farm Del Cabo, at the fields leased for growing culinary herbs by Jacobs Farm Del Cabo from Wilder Ranch State Park along the Pacific Coast in Santa Cruz, California, in a partnership aimed at giving back to the environment in a positive, sustainable way. They practice crop rotation, refrain from using pesticides, and give back to the soil by using compost and farm fuel. They are not thinking of this season or even the next. They want this land to be fertile for generations to come. Jacobs Farm Del Cabo is a collection of organic farms dispersed along the western edge of California and Mexico, dedicated to growing fresh, high quality, delicious food without damaging the environment. All together, they farm nearly five thousand certified organic field and greenhouse acres. As one of the first certified organic farms, they remain passionate about their desire to benefit people, communities, and the environment for generations to come. They believe in promoting health from the ground up. Healthy soil produces healthy crops, which in turn allows for a healthier lifestyle. Organic farming is also a healthier choice for farmers, their families, and their communities. They are vigorous promoters of environmental, social, and economic sustainability because these practices ensure the ongoing health of our planet and its people. In 1986, they joined forces with a group of struggling subsistence-level farmers in Baja California. Together they formed the Del Cabo Cooperative, helping these farmers improve their organic farming practices and gain access to international markets. The result is a thriving and sustainable farming economy that has lifted these farmers out of poverty and transformed them into vibrant contributors to their communities. Their leadership role in the organic farming industry and their passion for improving organic farm practices have always given them a clear dire

©David Walter Banks, Danielle Loustalot, marketing manager for Jacobs Farm Del Cabo, at the fields leased for growing culinary herbs along the Pacific Coast in Santa Cruz, California.

SEBASTOPOL, California, September 21: Photographer and farmer Sarah Deragon at Radical Family Farms where she lives with her partner Leslie Wiser in Sebastopol, California. Radical Family Farms was founded in 2019 as the first no-spray mixed-Asian vegetable CSA (community supported agriculture) farm in the Bay Area. Their farming practices go ‘beyond organic’ with their no-till, regenerative methods. They farm 1.5 acres in Sebastopol, California, a small town in west Sonoma County. They are led by farmer-owner Leslie Wiser, a queer, first-generation Taiwanese/Chinese/German/Polish American. The produce curated on the farm is a personal exploration of identity. Deemed ‘Identity Farming,’ the main mission of the farm is to reconnect to lost heritage while regenerating the land. Radical Family Farms is the actualization of a 22-year-old dream held by Wiser after spending a season in college farming in Alaska.

©David Walter Banks, Photographer and farmer Sarah Deragon at Radical Family Farms where she lives with her partner Leslie Wiser in Sebastopol, California.

Tags: Agriculture, CENTER, CENTER Awards, Climate Change, David Walter Banks, documentary, Environment, Sustainability