In his sophomore year at Howard, Star Blakney said he started to appreciate the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of the portrait.
“Portraits are the most easily accessible way to gaze into somebody’s soul,” said Blakney, a junior photography major from New York City. “It’s so simple. As humans, we first learn about the world from what we see, and portraits are such a raw form of language.”
Blakney didn’t always see himself as a photographer. Half of his college applications were to acting programs. But Howard’s dedicated photography major sealed the deal for him.
At the end of his sophomore year, Blakney held a pop-up photo activation called “HU is You” in front of Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts. He hung a white backdrop and allowed people to spray paint whatever they wanted, then took their portraits. In just three hours, Blakney had photographed 120 people.
After the event, Blakney itched to turn his love of portraiture into a long-term solo passion project. So in August, he launched hu.bystar, an Instagram series where he captures the diversity of Howard students.
Each post is a diptych: first, the student’s portrait, and then a video where they give their “Howard intro” and a fact people don’t know about them.
“I wanted to bring together Howard students and people who may not know each other with just the simple question of: What’s something people don’t know about you?” Blakney explained.
Maureen Abraham, a junior broadcast journalism major from Fort Lauderdale, Florida who is featured on the page, said she likes that Blakney is spotlighting the “Howard intro.”
“The Howard intro is something so simple that is unique to everyone here on campus,” Abraham said. “Every Howard student knows exactly what to say once asked for it.”
Blakney has photographed over 150 students for hu.bystar so far, with about half of them being complete strangers to him.
“Nothing could have prepared me for how many people I would be talking to in one day,” he said.
Blakney permits one portrait and one video per person, with no redos.
“That historicizes it,” he said. “When [students] graduate, they can always look back on the account and see that one video they took when they were a sophomore.”
Abraham echoed the importance of archival projects like hu.bystar. “It’s like a digital yearbook. That’s one of the cool things about social media,” she said.
Emiah Njoku, a sophomore television and film production major from Chesterfield, Michigan, was excited to participate in a social media photo campaign that wasn’t a high-production, hyper-processed shoot.
“It was refreshing to be a part of an unfiltered project that leaned into the casual culture of Instagram that was prominent in the 2010s,” she said.
Blakney said people have started recognizing him and jumping at the opportunity to participate.
“There was one day I [shot] about 35 people in an hour and a half,” Blakney said. “A line had accumulated… and my girlfriend had to remind me that I had class. But I was trying to clear up the line!”
Blakney said his page got 200,000 impressions on Instagram that day, which he recalls as “one of the best days” of the project. And while he is conscious of engagement as a content creator, he remains grounded in his creative mission.
“You can’t be a photographer and not worry about the social metrics on Instagram or any platform,” he said, “but you can also not let that guide your decisions.”
Blakney is mastering the art of disarming people for the camera. He said he always wants to make sure “nobody feels shy” having their picture taken.
Naoko Marti, a junior interdisciplinary humanities major from Chicago, said she tends to feel self-conscious being photographed, but felt a rare sense of ease having her portrait taken by Blakney.
“Usually, I am not super comfortable in front of the camera, especially in the state I was in that day — very casual and a little ‘chopped,’” Marti said. “Star was able to make me feel way more comfortable than I normally would’ve.”
Mahoro Amani, a junior political science major from Miami, agreed.
“It’s a really important piece of being a photographer, [making] your subject feel like the camera loves them,” she said.
Amani’s photo on hu.bystar features her snake, Attucks, laying across her shoulders.
Despite his roots in acting, Blakney does not resent not being in front of the camera. He has no desire to be the muse, model or performer.
“People have told me I should model. I do not want to model,” he said. “I’m somebody who loves to capture someone else’s story.”
Blakney said he envisions a career in fashion photography, with a focus on Black fashion. He feels particularly called to New York, specifically Harlem, which he describes as a foundational space for Black creatives.
Blakney wants his photos on the front cover of a magazine. By the end of the year, he wants to work with a clothing brand.
“I want to do it all,” Blakney said.
Copy edited by Jori Johnson
