Leslie-Ann Robertson Toney

contact: Leslie@studiolafoncette.com

homepages:
www.studiolafoncette.com
www.studiolafoncettephotography.wordpress.com

 

Leslie Robertson-Toney is a self-taught photographer who focuses on "cultural photojournalism" particularly relating to Trinidad & Tobago carnival and its descendant carnivals in North America.

She has covered carnivals in Trinidad, Washington DC, and New York as a freelance photographer for the past three years. However, she had been shooting as a hobby for the past 12 years. Her work has been published online in Island Vibes Magazine, and in Howard University’s Amistad Literary Journal.

In 2010, Toney hosted her debut exhibit "Mas' Women and Women Behind De Mas' " at the Emergence Community Arts Collective, Washington DC in honour of the annual Support Women Artists Now (SWAN) Day. The exhibit included a series of photographs and interviews with female bandleaders and carnival queens shot and conducted during the 2010 Trinidad carnival season.

Toney was a photographer for 2011 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and her work was exhibited in a group show – "Portfolio" – at the New Horizons Gallery at Children's National Medical Centre Washington, DC during the Spring 2011.

A graduate of Howard University and the University of Kentucky, she resides in Alexandria, Virginia. When she’s not behind the camera, she is a youth mentor, and works as a psychotherapist at a community mental health centre.

Toney describes her relationship with art through this statement:
"My connection with my heritage in the vibrant colours of T&T extends to my photography. Photos are a way to highlight your personal story, but they make tangible the important elements that make us different, make us human and celebrate human differences. So I’m not only interested in my story but in my subject’s story, in your personal story. I’ve used my photos to expose others to a different culture, to learn about my past and to discover the present. I hope that the more we know and understand each other, the more we can appreciate, respect and genuinely love humanity. In celebration of many stories, allow me to invite you to discover a culture beyond your imagination."

In 2011 her focus is on a "Journey to a Sacred Place". She uses images to explore the idea of pilgrimage through carnival and other spiritual and cultural ways of life. It is just the beginning of her investigation into how people access and express joy, fulfillment, peace, remembrance and awareness of their ethnic, spiritual or cultural identity.

 


Hidden Joy
14 X 11"
Digital photography print

Child Masquerader in Trinidad Carnival


Remembrance (The Sacrament of Adornment)
16 x 20"
Digital photography print

Masquerader in Native Indian dress – costumes are
designed and decorated in the same tradition as
New Orleans carnival.
It represents solidarity with Native oppression
and remembrance of a connection to spirituality.

 


Trance
20 16"
Digital photography print

Grenadian masquerader during Labor Day Jouvert in Brooklyn, NY.
De "Grens" take over the streets in a trance like stampede during Jouvert.

This photo was selected as a finalist in Photographer's Forum's Best of Photography
competition and will be published in "Best of Photography 2011" in December 2011.



 


Remembrance
16x20"
Digital photography print

Junior masquerader in Native mas' – Kiddies Carnival 2011

 


Worship
16 x 20"
Digital photography print

Woman masquerader from Vulgar Fraction
– Independent Mas' band eyes focused on the camera.
As she rests on Charlotte Street on Carnival Tuesday
parade time stops and the rest of the world is
shut out of this sacred space

 


Uncle Jab
11 x 14"
Digital photography print

A long-time Jab Jab player in DC Caribbean Carnival

 

 

 

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