Utopia is not a place but a people. Micaiah Carter photographs what it looks like
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Set us as preferred This story is part of Image’s September Image Makers issue, your guide to this city that refuses to be any one thing.Everyone is here.Eloise, the matriarch.Uncle Oliver.
Jahzie and Cousin Jasmine.The nieces and nephews and grandbabies.
Under shaded tents, plates overflow with fried fish and macaroni salad as elders hold court, trading stories about “the old record shop on Avalon” and the Los Angeles they remember “before the riots.” Overhead, airplanes screech across a fat blue sky in a hurry to who knows where.But here, in a backyard on Cimarron Street on the last Saturday in July, conversation bounces from table to table, mouth to mouth, and the harmony of the day falls into place.The Smith family has gathered to celebrate the gift of tradition.
As a handful of people in attendance will repeat over the course of the afternoon, today is about not letting “the recipes” die.“It’s really important to stay in touch with your history.
I don’t want us to lose that,” Jasmine says.Among the crowd is Micaiah Carter, who, at 31, has established himself as one of the most in-demand photographers of his generation.Carter is also more than a photographer who has shot fashion spreads for Vogue, Valentino and Ralph Lauren, or whose portraiture has been featured on the covers of Essence and GQ.
He architects across genre and industry, directing music videos (“Need It Bad” by Ama and Brent Faiyaz) while also shooting album covers for your favorite artists (Leikeli47, Kimbra, Skilla Baby) and collaborating with the biggest brands in the world (Nike, Apple).Today, Carter is simply family, part of the Smiths’ extended clan.He hails from Victorville, the high desert town off Route 66, and when he moved to L.A.
from New York, he and Jasmine became fast friends.They’ve been inseparable ever si...