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instagram Grape-colored buildings, a woman's rainbow-striped blazer, lipstick-red splashes of paint, a man's gleaming white fedora, extreme close-ups — the vibrant colors and characters in Shawn Theodore's (@_xst) photographs are impossible to ignore. Yet he began taking pictures of African-American neighborhoods and their denizens because he felt invisible. "I want people to be attracted to the color, but also to get to know the people. I really love being able to put my people up on a pedestal," the 45-year-old Philadelphia native says. While re-reading Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man," he began noticing parallels to his own experience, explaining, "I started to see a greater context — people are being pushed out, people are disappearing, houses are being torn out." Still, he wants his work to be simply a celebration of beauty and community as opposed to photojournalism, so he prefers not to link his photos to their locations, instead describing how they make him feel. "I want people to feel the vibe before it changes, to understand the spirit of a neighborhood. I don't want people to think of one city," he says. "These folks won't be here in 10 years. The buildings won't be here. Being able to capture the ebb and flow is a big deal." Photo by @_xst
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