Storied (adjective): celebrated; associated with stories or legends. 

Pop! and A Real One are photographs from a series of artworks by Dex R. Jones called Storied Portraits. A complex and vibrant history of Blackness is preserved, shared, and celebrated each time Jones photographs a subject: “I have always thought that photography is a form of anthropology. It is a great way to get to know and understand people. Each person is a new experience and each experience teaches you something.”

A spectrum of bright, saturated colors, texture, flesh, and heavy contrast highlight and amplify Jones’ subjects. His unique expertise in justly capturing women of vast shades is indicative of his strong matriarchal upbringing; and his success in achieving powerful, regal images radiates from an infectious passion that is distinctly exposed in the strong subjects he portrays: “These are people. And they are just as varied, layered, and colorful as the work itself.”