Beneath Richmond’s polished marketing lies a vibrant, hidden world that few will ever understand. Queer club kids, blood painted goths, drag royalty, neon-drenched ravers — the city’s nightlife is a swirling carousel of characters, as surreal as a fever dream straight out of Alice in Wonderland.
Photographer and multimedia artist Isaiah Mamo, aka LIGHTPAINTERR, moves through this world with ease, offering us a window into a subculture where beauty and decay slam together.
R. Anthony Harris: Can you introduce yourself and describe what you do?
Isaiah Mamo: I’m a photographer, creative director, and multimedia artist. In my work, I focus on queering the photographic process through alternative processes such as light painting, overexposure, cyanotype, and instant film. I explore elements of mysticism, horror, subcultures, and religion in my work as a tool to conceptually and visually elevate my photos.
RAH: How did you first get into photography?
IM: Aside from snapping pictures on my 3DS as a kid when I would travel with my family, I started experimenting with portrait photography with my friend in high school. We would think of concepts, style outfits, and even sometimes do drag makeup looks for shoots. Each shoot we did, we’d try to up the antics and obscure the images more and more—from using CDs and prisms to reflect lights and colors onto each other to using lower shutter speeds for light painting. I started to really take it seriously and experiment by doing long-exposure self-portraits in my bedroom, seeing how much I could obscure images of myself without editing. Experimenting from trial and error is something I still do to this day. I ended up taking darkroom classes in high school, which really introduced me to the fine art side of photography and made me think more about composition.
RAH: Are you originally from Richmond?
IM: I’m originally from Alexandria, VA, but I moved to Richmond to study at VCU in 2020.
RAH: You did a lot of work for Ink Magazine, a VCU student publication. What did you take away from that experience, and are there any shoutouts you’d like to give to people you worked with there?
IM: I learned so much working for Ink! I learned how to collaborate with a larger creative team and how to play the role of photographer versus creative director for shoots, and what it looks like to be both. Ink made me think a lot about how to format my work for print and website design, specifically how to become more concise with the images I’m putting out. Creating pitch decks and essentially being the salesperson for my content and ideas at Ink was also a great exercise in building more trust in my own creative vision and how I can convince other people of it.
Ink was a great platform for my concert work as well. I was able to shoot a lot of my favorite artists, not just in Richmond but in different cities all along the East Coast, for Ink articles and learned how to navigate reaching out to artists’ management. The Spellling, Eartheater, and Ethel Cain concerts I photographed were very big moments for me, as these artists inspired me so much with their own visual aesthetics.
Yes, I met and worked with so many cool people at Ink!
- Sydney (@sydneythestrange) – Sydney has such a strong aesthetic across all her work that pulls from many different subcultures, yet is so her own!
- Maya Blys (@nuuukes) – Maya’s an amazing photographer and videographer; she’s been an assistant and co-director for plenty of my projects, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! She’s always exploring the intersections between spirituality and visual arts, and it always inspires me.
RAH: Much of your work focuses on the Richmond queer community. Why is that focus important to you?
IM: Growing up and being out for so long, I’ve always found myself navigating to other queer people, and photographing my friends and the spaces I find myself in has been a product of that. It’s important to me to represent myself and my community’s identities, creating a platform that is unashamedly queer. Focusing on the Richmond queer community is important to me because it’s reflective of the people I’m in community with and allows me to build out visual fantasies in my work that center people like myself.
RAH: You seem to navigate various nightlife scenes effortlessly, from goth to hip hop to drag. Is there one scene in particular that you enjoy exploring and documenting the most?
IM: Definitely drag. Drag performers almost always have a whole thought-out fantasy for their looks and so much confidence and excitement about being photographed. Photographing in clubs like Fallout always has really colorful lights and lasers, which makes photographing long exposure so fun because I play with dragging those lights out across my photos. Also, as a fan of drag, I love when drag gets scary or outrageous. Alternative drag aesthetics like Club Kids, horror, and clowns have always inspired me—and being able to shoot these kinds of artists has been such an honor. Especially working with Nova Kayne (@Novakaynee) has been so fun across my projects.
RAH: As a young photographer in Richmond, what has been the most challenging aspect of working here?
IM: Free work expectations. I think a lot of people see younger artists, of any medium, as people they can take advantage of or solicit lower prices from. I think establishing yourself as an artist and setting those boundaries as early as you can is so important.
RAH: For queer folks moving to Richmond, how would you describe the community here?
IM: The queer community in Richmond is really welcoming and boundary-pushing, especially queer artists. Being a part of the mosaic that is Richmond’s queer art community has allowed me to learn so much from other artists and share what I know. There are so many opportunities to meet and connect with other queer artists—from the club to galleries to protest art events.
RAH: Is there anything coming up in the near future that you’d like to share with people?
IM: This summer, I’ve been working on making cyanotype and anthrotype prints (aka sun printing) and collage work. I’ve been expanding my work with print and physical media lately, and I’m excited to roll these prints out soon.
Give them a follow @LIGHTPAINTERR
PHOTOS BY LIGHTPAINTERR
