For co-curators Alfonso Alday and Vai Jong Hunken, “GRIT Photo” began as an exploration of endurance—what it means to persist, to create, and to see through moments of strain and stillness. Opening Oct. 27 at the Clarkston Community Center, the exhibition gathers a focused selection of photographic works examining the intersection of documentation and resilience through various personal and cultural lenses.
Days before the show, Alday shared the ideas shaping “GRIT Photo,” the selection of artists, and how the show connects to Atlanta’s creative spirit.
What inspired the choice of “grit” as a unifying theme, and how did you encourage photographers to interpret it?
The word evokes both texture and tenacity. It’s about the raw material of making art under pressure, but also the endurance of vision that refuses to yield. We also thought that the concept of “grit” reflected Atlanta’s own spirit.
We invited photographers to respond to that duality: the physical and emotional surfaces of endurance. … we encouraged each artist to define what resilience means within their personal, social, or environmental context, whether that’s migration, memory, labor, or identity. The result is a collective portrait of persistence that feels deeply human and visually arresting.
Who are some of the photographers with works in the show, and what guided the decision to include them?
The show includes a cross-section of voices whose practices intersect around documentary impulse and experimental form, among them Dante Holdsworth, Jamil Fatti, Eva Losada, and Kael Vox.
Our guiding principle was to foreground artists who treat photography not just as observation but as confrontation with history, with place, and with self. Each of them demonstrates a distinct kind of grit: emotional, aesthetic, or social. The curation aims to create friction between these modes, allowing vulnerability and strength to coexist on the wall.
“Atlanta is teeming with exceedingly talented photographers, and we want to create the space for them to showcase their practice.”
“grit” co-curator Alfonso Alday
Clarkston is one of the most diverse communities in the country. How does the exhibit reflect or engage that?
Clarkston’s identity as a site of migration and cultural convergence makes it a powerful backdrop for a conversation on endurance. The exhibition engages that spirit by presenting works that reflect displacement, belonging, and adaptation—universal human experiences that resonate strongly within Clarkston’s community fabric.
Many of the featured works deal with resilience in the face of challenge. Why is photography suited to capturing that idea?
Photography is both immediate and enduring. It captures a fleeting moment while insisting on its permanence. That paradox makes it a potent medium for resilience since it bears witness to vulnerability but also freezes the act of resistance or of existence. The concept of “grit” is also well suited for [the medium of] photography since it is an unsung hero within the fine arts world. Atlanta is teeming with exceedingly talented photographers, and we want to create the space for them to showcase their practice.
In “GRIT,” photography becomes an instrument of reclamation. Every frame is a refusal to look away, a declaration that endurance has form, face, and feeling.
Read More:
• O4W’s Atlanta Worldwide Gallery is a shrine to Old Atlanta – and vintage cameras
• Timofey Abel lights the way for Atlanta’s next creative wave
What do you hope the “GRIT Photo” exhibit adds to the broader conversation about creativity, endurance, and community in metro Atlanta’s arts scene?
Atlanta’s art scene thrives on experimentation, but it is also a city built on perseverance, socially, politically, and creatively. “GRIT” aims to expand that conversation by connecting endurance to empathy.
Our hope is that the exhibition invites institutions, artists, and audiences to see resilience not just as survival but as a creative strategy, a way of shaping narratives and communities through sustained artistic labor. “GRIT” contributes to a larger dialogue about how the South, Atlanta in particular, continue to redefine contemporary art on their own terms.”
“GRIT Photo” is on view Oct. 27–Nov. 1, 2025, at the Clarkston Community Center. Admission is free.