Tuesday, February 11, 2025

City Pages: Dirtykics debuts first photobook

Photographer Jay Dickerson built a following through his Instagram handle @dirtykics. Known for posting portraits of the people he encounters as a flaneur about Toledo, Dirtykics is familiar to folks going about their days. He’s a gently imposing man with an anachronistic Rolleiflex camera draped around his neck.

Rather than holding the device to his eye, thecamera’s orientation requires that he bow his head toward the view-finder, where he brings the frame into focus. Images Dirtykics makes are usually portraits of people: old, young, but almost always pedestrian. And though
the mechanics of the Rolleiflex are so complex that there are but a handful of
folks who know how to repair the model he uses, Dickerson uses it to elevate the images with his rare ability to capture, simply, the dignity of his subjects as he encounters them. It’s tempting to call what Dirtykics does photojournalism, but journalism is only a trade; art is something else.

Galleries versus books
Dirtykics’s first solo museum show, In Order to Live ran from March to July of 2024 at the Toledo Museum of Art. The exhibition was a milestone achievement for the street photographer as he was recognized for his visual contributions to the Museum’s
namesake city. But a book represents a departure from a gallery show the way screening a movie is different from spectating a live-action play. Navigating that divergence demanded some adjustment.

“I was lost since this was my first release,” Dickerson explains. “You can concentrate on themes and narratives just going over an edit of your favorite photographs and, incidentally, other photographs start to make sense when you notice how they relate. The daunting part is determining how much goes into a book or how little into a show. Saturation is a thing to avoid.”

Published by California-based zine press Tour Dogs, Dirtykics’s debut photobook Like Me and You is 84 pages of black and white images.

Trey Derbes, Tour Dogs’ principle, had followed Dirtykics on IG for a while. “I can’t remember how I came across his work,” Derbes said, “but I was intrigued by his images and started following him. His work felt genuine and sincere. Over the years, I could see the consistency of his work and through that I felt like I was learning more and more about Jay and Toledo.”

But a sizable oeuvre, loyal following, and solo museum exhibition didn’t necessarily reflect Dirtykics’s own estimation of his work. “Admittedly, I didn’t think I had anything worth publishing,”
Dickerson said.

Derbes felt differently. “After years of seeing his images in my feed, I felt I had to showcase his work in print. We originally were going to do a light zine, but I felt that wouldn’t show how hard Jay works or how large his body of work is.”

Cataloging grey area

Generally, black-and-white photographs express nuance through the degrees of gray between a photo’s blackest black and whitest white hues. The book is a stylistic catalogue of those shades. The photos that made it into the book were whittled from the hundreds Dirtykics sent Derbes. “Some favorites and others I wanted to see in book format,” Dickerson said. “We talked about how to pair images and
the like, really looking at the work and
the meaning behind it.”

When the printing of the book was almost complete, Tour Dogs announced the book with a pre-order link. The first run of 100 hand-stitched copies sold out just as the publisher took delivery of the first run from the printer.

“The reception has been incredible,” Derbes said. “Jay is such an important part of Toledo and it shows in the support he received for this book.”

“It’s so dope having folks in my
corner as an artist,” Dickerson said. “As
long as I have that, I’ll always be good.”

Dirtykics will exhibit at the TSA Portal Gallery on February 7, from 7-8 p.m. More details at theportalattsa.com. Copies of Like Me and You available at tourdogs.com

Photographer Jay Dickerson built a following through his Instagram handle @dirtykics. Known for posting portraits of the people he encounters as a flaneur about Toledo, Dirtykics is familiar to folks going about their days. He’s a gently imposing man with an anachronistic Rolleiflex camera draped around his neck.

Rather than holding the device to his eye, thecamera’s orientation requires that he bow his head toward the view-finder, where he brings the frame into focus. Images Dirtykics makes are usually portraits of people: old, young, but almost always pedestrian. And though
the mechanics of the Rolleiflex are so complex that there are but a handful of
folks who know how to repair the model he uses, Dickerson uses it to elevate the images with his rare ability to capture, simply, the dignity of his subjects as he encounters them. It’s tempting to call what Dirtykics does photojournalism, but journalism is only a trade; art is something else.

Galleries versus books
Dirtykics’s first solo museum show, In Order to Live ran from March to July of 2024 at the Toledo Museum of Art. The exhibition was a milestone achievement for the street photographer as he was recognized for his visual contributions to the Museum’s
namesake city. But a book represents a departure from a gallery show the way screening a movie is different from spectating a live-action play. Navigating that divergence demanded some adjustment.

“I was lost since this was my first release,” Dickerson explains. “You can concentrate on themes and narratives just going over an edit of your favorite photographs and, incidentally, other photographs start to make sense when you notice how they relate. The daunting part is determining how much goes into a book or how little into a show. Saturation is a thing to avoid.”

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Published by California-based zine press Tour Dogs, Dirtykics’s debut photobook Like Me and You is 84 pages of black and white images.

Trey Derbes, Tour Dogs’ principle, had followed Dirtykics on IG for a while. “I can’t remember how I came across his work,” Derbes said, “but I was intrigued by his images and started following him. His work felt genuine and sincere. Over the years, I could see the consistency of his work and through that I felt like I was learning more and more about Jay and Toledo.”

But a sizable oeuvre, loyal following, and solo museum exhibition didn’t necessarily reflect Dirtykics’s own estimation of his work. “Admittedly, I didn’t think I had anything worth publishing,”
Dickerson said.

Derbes felt differently. “After years of seeing his images in my feed, I felt I had to showcase his work in print. We originally were going to do a light zine, but I felt that wouldn’t show how hard Jay works or how large his body of work is.”

Cataloging grey area

Generally, black-and-white photographs express nuance through the degrees of gray between a photo’s blackest black and whitest white hues. The book is a stylistic catalogue of those shades. The photos that made it into the book were whittled from the hundreds Dirtykics sent Derbes. “Some favorites and others I wanted to see in book format,” Dickerson said. “We talked about how to pair images and
the like, really looking at the work and
the meaning behind it.”

When the printing of the book was almost complete, Tour Dogs announced the book with a pre-order link. The first run of 100 hand-stitched copies sold out just as the publisher took delivery of the first run from the printer.

“The reception has been incredible,” Derbes said. “Jay is such an important part of Toledo and it shows in the support he received for this book.”

“It’s so dope having folks in my
corner as an artist,” Dickerson said. “As
long as I have that, I’ll always be good.”

Dirtykics will exhibit at the TSA Portal Gallery on February 7, from 7-8 p.m. More details at theportalattsa.com. Copies of Like Me and You available at tourdogs.com

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