CULTURE 26 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY FEBRUARY 20-26, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com Robert Daniels Jr. dresses immaculately. When meeting him in front of his photo exhibit at the Avery Art Gallery in Seaside City Hall he wears a three-piece brown suit over a white shirt, topped by a brown hat. It’s not immediately clear if he is an artist or perhaps a politician. That’s because Daniels is more than an artist. He is foremost a community organizer, lawyer-in-training and one of the ambassadors of Black Seaside. If he became a photographer, he did it for a cause: to save Black Seaside from being lost in historic memory. After all, in the 1980s, Seaside was the biggest Black hub between Los Angeles and Oakland. He has been taking photos for the last four to five years (including sometimes as a freelancer for the Weekly). “It’s always been my intention to document the community,” Daniels says, walking between walls of photos— some of them his, many coming from old Fort Ord yearbooks his grandfather left behind. The archival images show the lives of Black soldiers from the Fort Ord era, men being shaved or sharing a jelly roll. “I’m not personally attached to those photos,” the artist says about 42 pieces that fit into the limited space of the Avery Art Gallery. He has over 300 more. “Many of them are celebratory. But the actual story is about what it actually means to be a Black person in Seaside, and more generally in Monterey County, [which] has its nuances.” Daniels’ is in many ways a typical Black Seaside story. His grandfather, Command Sgt. Maj. Donald Daniels, was sent to Fort Ord and the family thrived until the fort was closed in 1994. “Grandfather is the reason we came to this area and he is also the one who raised me,” Daniels says. Like many other Black men, Donald Daniels considered the military his way out of poverty. By joining the military, Black men had a chance to prove their worth, Daniels says—“To prove that we are ready to fight for this country,” even if persecuted within the social realm. After his stay in Seaside, Daniels’ grandfather was sent to Vietnam and then to North Carolina. After his service, the grandfather “drove all the way back here because, as he said, it was the only place where he did not feel the segregation vibes,” Daniels explains. “We have stayed ever since.” After 1994, many Black families moved out. Since then, the Black population in Seaside has been dropping steadily. It’s a generational thing, too, according to Daniels. Many Black people of his age left for college and never came back. Some fell into the incarceration system. Daniels was introduced to basic photography by his uncle, a born storyteller who suffered from a speech impediment. “His way of telling stories was following and photographing events,” Daniels says. “I spent a lot of time with him.” Before he died, the uncle asked his nephew to photograph his funeral. It was Daniels’ first photographic project. While not artistic set pieces, Daniels’ color photography from 2023 and 2024 captures moments and documents Black community gathering, from the fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha to the Retired Men’s Social Club. In the Black History Art Exhibit, Daniels features photos from the 2022 protests after 28-year-old Dexter Barnett Jr. was murdered in Monterey. He documents happy times, but also funerals and the local tradition of throwing roses into the ocean after the funeral ceremony. Some photos come from “just walking around” Seaside. A sunset image taken from Broadway Avenue, aka Obama Way, is haunting. There is Seaside’s mascot, the seahorse, and many other street photography moments. One shows three Black women with wonderful natural hair at the Palenke Arts Festival. Then there are photos of people in their 80s who, Daniels notes, will not be with us in another 30 years, such as Mel Mason, a longtime civil rights and community leader. Daniels’ dream is a bigger space that could show more of the collection. When compared with the content he chose for this exhibit, photography as a medium is secondary, he says. He loves the ability to document with a camera, but the subject matter—Seaside—is the most important. The plan is to pivot into showing other photos of Black men’s experience—of despair, struggle, migration and the fight for more resources. Finally, photography is just one medium; Daniels plans a shift to broader storytelling. “Closing Fort Ord took away a lot of resources from the Black community,” Daniels says. “But there is still a vibrant Black community in Seaside. We continue to make connections between us and fight for equal rights, opportunities and resources.” Black History Art Exhibit by Robert Daniels continues through Feb. 28. Avery Gallery in Seaside City Hall, 440 Harcourt Ave., Seaside. ci.seaside.ca.us/412/ Avery-Art-Gallery, robertdanielsjr.pixieset.com. Local History Documenting Black Seaside—past and present—has become a passion for one photographer. By Agata Popęda “There is still a vibrant Black community in Seaside.” Community organizer turned photographer Robert Daniels Jr. learned the pleasures of walking around the neighborhood with a camera from his uncle. See his photo exhibit celebrating Seaside at the Avery Art Gallery in Seaside City Hall. DANIEL DREIFUSS ROBERT DANIELS JR. From an old Fort Ord yearbook: military cooks fussing over a jelly roll. The yearbook belonged to Daniels’ grandfather, who was a soldier. The exhibit pairs archival and contemporary images. This contemporary photo by Robert Daniels Jr. documents a local funeral tradition of throwing roses into the ocean after the ceremony. COURTESY OF ROBERT DANIELS JR.
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