Take a Journey Through the Lens with Obiora Embry
Chinkapin Brewing
149 East Main Street
Georgetown, KY 40324
January 2-February 28, 2026
In this show Obiora wanted to take you, the viewer, on a journey through the lens. The photographs shown were taken between 2014 and 2025.
Bee Balm in the Foreground
Frankfort, KY
bee balm, intentional movement, native plantThe shutter speed was set to 1/30 while intentionally moving the camera to create a transition with Bee Balm.
Cody’s Wish An Equine Tribute
Lexington, KY
cody's wish, equine, horse, retired horseOn 3 February, I along with other photographers went to Jonabell Farm in Lexington, KY to photograph the horse named Cody’s Wish. For this piece, I wanted to try and show the personality of the thoroughbred horse.
Door to the Past
Lexington, KY
Lexington projects, doors, Brother BruceThe Bluegrass‐Aspendale Housing Project was built in stages between 1936 and 1951. The Lexington Housing Authority built Aspendale for Black residents and Bluegrass for white. When it opened in 1938 in the predominately Black East End neighborhood of Lexington, Kentucky, it was one of the first public housing projects in the country. The housing project was originally built on the site of Lexington’s first racecourse (1826‐1933). It spanned 82 acres and was bordered by Withrow Way, Race, Magnolia, Shropshire, and Sixth streets.
On 30 January 1974 the 300 yard eight foot high barbed wire fence that separated the Black and white residents was taken down. The Bluegrass‐Aspendale Housing Project in its peak had 963 units. In 1990 the Lexington Housing Authority demolished 295 units. In November 2002 an additional 279 units were razed. Through the HOPE VI program the final demolition of the projects was started in October 2006 with the publicly stated goal of making the neighborhood safer while displacing the People of Color who lived there as they could NOT afford to move into the neighborhood where they had been living.
In 2002, Tyree Guyton–a Black Detroit artist who started the Heidelberg Project in 1986 with the help of family–worked with students from a Detroit elementary school on the Doors of Opportunity. In 2005 Bruce Mundy, a Black historian, educator, food grower, and more visited the Heidelberg Project in Detroit with longtime friend and collaborator Jim Embry (my father who was living in Detroit at the time). The doors came from the BluegrassAspendale Housing Project and were painted by attendees of the Bluegrass Aspendale Teen Center.
The photograph was taken in 2005 with a 35mm film camera. The plan was to print and sell photographs of this door and another door, photographs of the African Cemetery No. 2 on Seventh Street, and other photographs. However, for different reasons, nothing materialized. I felt compelled to include this photograph in this exhibit to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the photograph and to bring awareness of this project. The frame that houses this piece has Kenté cloth wrapped around it by my mother, DeBora Mapp.
Downtown Lexington at Night
Lexington, KY
downtown, Lexington, perspective, nightThe title says it all.
Flow Like the Water
Richmond, KY
Silver Creek, Barnes Mill Road, flowBe like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.
‐ Bruce Lee
Frosted Dandelion
Lexington, KY
late April frost, dandelion, wonder, NatureThe title says it all.
Frozen Water Driftwood
Columbus, OH
frozen water, frigid, driftwood, Griggs ReservoirIn February 2014 while visiting Griggs Reservoir, this photograph was taken of the Scioto River--with the wind chill the temperature was below 0 F.
Homestead
Greenville, KY
Homestead, log cabin, Martin Acres, daffodilsIn the Rhodes Chapel Community of Greenville, Kentucky, sits an eighth generation black owned family farm called Martin Acres, and on this farm, sits this house. It was the home of Finis Martin, my great‐great grandfather. This home also housed other family members and is also known as the "well house."
And this photograph is used as the sample for the 60th Martin Family Reunion commemorative puzzles, and is also known as 60th Martin Family Reunion and Early Spring Revival.
Multiple Colors in Motion
Frankort, KY
intentional movement, flowering plantThe shutter speed was set to 1/30 while intentionally moving the camera to create a transition.
Nearing the End of Day
Lexington, KY
sunset, rise above, light, treesThe title says it all.
Pink in Motion
Frankort, KY
intentional movement, flowering plantThe shutter speed was set to 1/30 while intentionally moving the camera to create a transition.
Spring is Here
Greenville, KY
spring, daffodil, rise above, Martin AcresThis is a close up of a Pseudo‐Narcissus Daffodil, a very old type of daffodil, growing on the side of a small hill at Martin Acres. These Daffodils were valued by early homesteaders because they are easy to grow and spread easily. They were swapped and passed around as gifts in a marriage or whenever a couple bought a new home.
Surrounded By Love
Greenville, KY
Martin Acres, rise above, trees, cabin, protectedLourenza Dow Martin (my great‐great‐great grandfather) was born on 4 May 1833 (to unknown parents). In the 1850s he purchased his freedom & the freedom of his wife, Minnie Malvina "Vanie" Reynolds (born on 18 June 1838). Lourenza purchased 125 acres of land for $600 in 1866 and he passed on 7 April 1897. On 30 May 1898, the 125 acres was sold at a public auction. Herbert Leslie Martin, my great‐grandfather (born on 22 September 1896), acquired the land that had belonged to his grandfather.
Lourenza’s third child, Finis Martin, was born on 17 February 1859 in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. He began purchasing land at a young age. Finis married Willie Mathis (born on 9 September 1867) in 1886 and it is assumed that when he purchased land in the Rhodes Chapel Community to have profitable agricultural land, he also built the house seen in these two photographs. Homestead was taken in 2014 with a 35mm Kodak EasyShare C182 digital camera and Surrounded by Love was taken in 2017 with a Canon EOS Rebel T4i DSLR camera.
I talked with a friend who is a carpenter (among other things) about the Eastern Redcedar siding that shows little to no signs of deterioration on the Grandpap Finis House (or the Well House), and he told me that it could have been made with old growth Trees. He mentioned that the Trees may have been 200 or 300 years old, which is different than our current view on old growth.
Wild & Free
Outer Banks, NC
spanish mustangs, wild horses. north carolinaOn a family vacation in 2019, we went on a tour to see the wild Spanish Mustangs that roam free in the Outerbanks region of coastal North Carolina. I took a series of photographs and this one appealed the most to me for this equine tribute show.
