I think anyone who loves photography has a deep appreciation of being able to see a moment and capture it. I caught the photography bug before I was a teenager first owning a 35mm rangefinder then a SLR and eventually having my own darkroom. I was the 12 year old kid who went to Detroit Camera to buy darkroom supplies and talked to adults about different film emulsions.
Leni Sinclair never had a weekly column in a mainstream newspaper however her work was published in underground newspapers and mimeographed zines— what we would call the social media of her time. Through her photographs she documented the changing world around her, and when she wasn’t photographing it, she was driving change by opening galleries, communes, rallies and food co-ops.
As a documentary filmmaker and a photographer, Leni’s story is important to me. It’s a story about standing up for your beliefs and encompasses activism, feminism, civil rights, culture, and art. And while it’s a historical story, it’s very timely.