City People: Black Baltimore in the Photographs of John Clark Mayden presents over fifty of the artist’s black-and-white street portraits taken since the 1970s, many on view for the first time. These photographs capture the ordinary joys and sorrows, quiet moments, and daily realities of Baltimore’s African American neighborhoods: kids on their bikes and roller skates, old timers catching a breeze on their front stoops, busy people striding through the snow, tired people taking a break. Through careful observation and local understanding, Mayden lays bare the beauty and heartbreak of everyday life, Black life, in an American city.
John Clark Mayden grew up and attended school in West Baltimore and began his career as a photographer at a local television station. He earned his B.A. in Politics and Fine Arts from Ohio Wesleyan University and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Baltimore School of Law. His work has been exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Walters Art Museum, the Eubie Blake Cultural Center, and the Baltimore Museum of Art, among other venues.