Marlon Jones
Sunday mornings usually consist of waking up at 8 am, lying in bed until 10:30, followed by eating cereal and chugging a bottle of water. This particular Sunday I have the pleasure of meeting a fellow photographer and creative Marlon Jones. He currently resides in Arlington, Tx. Arlington nestled in between Dallas and Ft Worth, home of the infamous Six Flags, Hurricane Harbor and Global Life Park. Starbucks proved itself to be fitting for the occasion so I decided to pull into the nearest location. A tall coffee with mocha and toffee nut cream for Marlon and a tall caramel macchiato for myself. As I pulled into the middle class suburban apartments, I noticed his 6’6 lanky figure in a bright yellow Tommy Hilfiger polo and green track pants. Upon my arrival he was nonchalantly keeping his balance on the edge of the curb
I met the Virginia born, tcc/Tarrant College student who is currently floating in between photography, graphic design and possibly thinking about becoming a business major, at a local taco shop/venue Killer’s Tacos. He was hosting his birthday festival Marlonpalooza. The place was packed with a variety of the current generation’s youth: hardcore/metal kids, hip-hop/rap artists, creatives, fans of one or both genres of music and of course a photographer or two to document their perspective of the event. The bands performed on the outside stage and the rap artist performed inside. The back door was constantly opening up, creating a flow of traffic. I can only assume with the amount of people of attendance, business was good for Killer’s Tacos that night. Although the show ended up being a success, Jones describes his event as in “accident”. When I asked him how he was able to get both indoor and outdoor stages booked, he stated that the bands were not apart of the Marlonpalooza.”What happened was the venue ended up double booking the same night. Three of our mics didn’t work at the beginning of the show, so when they started, the bands had a lot of people to come and hype their shit up, then when our mics started working people started transitioning back inside. We had the whole venue packed. After experiencing mild anxiety and noticing the turn out of the event as a whole ended up being a 10/10, Jones was able to enjoy the pleasures of the accident
As Marlon casually lays on his bed, Teddy, his pit bull mix, came to sniff me out, making sure I wasn’t causing any trouble or intruding in his home. Jones’ room reminded me of a very comfortable college dorm, the carpet felt extremely pleasing against my toes. The walls were covered in various posters, including a nostalgic Dragonball Z poster that every teenage boy had in the early 2000’s. What caught my eye was a large yellow, red, white and blue ODDFUTURE poster, hovering over his computer table. ODDFUTURE, with their eccentric and outspoken front man Tyler the Creator, was an inspirational leap of faith into self expression for Marlon, yanking at the common perception of African American youth through music, art and self expression. “ Tyler [the Creator] showed me that you don’t have to be an archetypical nigga to be a nigga. I always felt like I didn’t fit in, so he helped me with being comfortable as a black man.” Jones says with his coffee in hand. “ ….Secondly, he showed me that if i want to make art, get the fuck up and just do it, and when you’re doing it , shoot for the fucking stars.” He always give credit to Canadian born, Grammy Award winning Hip- Hop artist Drake for being the artist that’s “always in his feeling” and multi platinum selling artist Kanye for his art and being “ the nigga with the polo and a backpack on “ in the braggadocio era on rap
What the rest of the world doesn’t seem to have knowledge of, is the DFW area is an expanding bubble of creativity, talent and ambition, followed by a dust cloud of pettiness and hatred. Many locals believe that the hatred and the lack on communication and togetherness is what hinders the well populated area to receive the recognition it deserves. 2018 sheds a different light from what Jones and I have noticed, to say the least. Some more that others, but nonetheless, the sense of togetherness amongst the metroplex is slowly becoming relevant, as oppose to the years prior. “ Atlanta has been on top of the scene for like 2 decades, deadass.” Jones laughs. “Even if they [Atlanta} had small beef with each other, they still put on for each other, they don’t move from their city and they still help each other and I’m starting to see that here, i see less niggas moving to New York or LA”. DFW has a lot to offer and some of the main factor the can help reach more recognition in networking is communication. especially between fans and artist alike “ Literally my show wouldn’t have happened without communication and the fact that all of my friends and associates are musicians.” Positivity is also another piece of the puzzle that’s poking its head out and currently making small but effective changes here and there. Its refreshing and it helps open up doors for other like-minded individuals and groups to get together and make things happen in the DFW. “ Now that I have a small voice in the city, I’m able to help any artist i see coming up because i know no one wanted to help me come up and everything comes in full circle”
Marlon ended up explaining to me the importance of having physical copies as a photography. At first, I wasn’t too concerned with keeping physicals. Perhaps being sucked into technology, social media and online portfolios caused me to not seek the importance of physicals but as Jones started expressing his view, I couldn’t help but to cave in. “Having physicals are so important, especially where people are questioning if you’re even a true artist because you’re apart of a digital community” Jones agreed to pull out a stack of his physical prints and I was very impressed. “ Printing is its own talent so seeing printed work shows the artist true abilities to completing the final process, and holding prints are just nice to touch” His work are mainly stunning black/white, outdoor, natural light portraits of male and female subjects. Holding actual physicals is definitely a different feeling. You can’t hang digital photos on the wall. Prints hold sentimental value that you won’t be able to get when you post a photo online
Marlon is currently finalizing his upcoming event, Marloween, consisting of live music, art vendor, face painting and costumes will be encouraged. He’s also in the works on Marlonpalooza for the next year, and plenty more other projects in the near future. “ I just hoping soon that I can do something really big and special for the city, like open a new venue or something”
