In Plain Sight: Opening Night

Atlas of Blackness presents “In Plain Sight” at the John and Denise Graves Foundation’s Creating Change Gallery, an intimate exhibition featuring Documenting MN’s journalism fellow, Precious Murray. Precious Murray is a documentary photographer, writer, and student currently pursuing a degree in Human Services with a focus on Social Work. As a Photojournalism Fellow with Atlas of Blackness's Documenting MN program, Precious brings a grounded, relational approach to visual storytelling, centering communities that are often misrepresented or ignored.

Her project, In Plain Sight, focuses on the intersection of Dale Street and University Avenue in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a corridor shaped by overlapping crises related to public transportation, housing insecurity, addiction, and mental health. Through black and white photography and ambient soundscapes, Precious documents the lives of unhoused and under-resourced Black Minnesotans living in and around transit hubs. As a social work student, Precious is deeply aware of the ethical responsibilities of documentation and representation. Her work challenges viewers to go beyond voyeurism. It asks what it means to see someone clearly and what obligations that entails. 

Curated by Lucina Kayee and Patience Zalanga, “In Plain Sight”invites the public to consider how Black people are rendered visible or invisible in urban spaces and what it means to create work that resists erasure. This showcase is made possible by the generous support of the John and Denise Graves Foundation and the voters of Minnesota, through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

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Host or Publisher Atlas of Blackness, the organization that runs Documenting MN