M ARTIN L UTHER K ING J R .
Page 16
2015 special edition
January 14, 2015
The Black
Portlanders
Photographer advances
project to even higher level
B Y O LIVIA O LIVIA
P ORTLAND O BSERVER
One of Portland’s youngest and most talented artists
sits in a corner of the Glyph Café and Artspace in the
Pearl. She carries her camera in her bag and waits for
an opportunity – the opportunity to catch the life of a
small segment of the Portland population: black folks
just like her.
Intisar Abioto hails from Memphis, a city rich in
African-American history and one that boasts a whop-
ping 62 percent of the population that identifies as
black. Portland’s paltry 7 percent black population has
lead to the city frequently being referred to as the
“whitest major city” in the United States.
About two years ago, Abioto began snapping shots
of people of color in Portland. She sometimes would
start a conversation, learn more about how they moved
here or if they were native born, and commit the stories
to memory, sometimes even sharing them on her blog.
Her project quickly became known as the Black
Portlanders, and was praised by international and local
news organizations like Al Jazeera, The Oregonian,
continued
on page 18
PHOTO BY O LIVIA O LIVIA /T HE P ORTLAND O BSERVER
Intisar Abioto is a Portland photographer inspired to use her work to tell the personal stories and
history of Portland’s black community.