Alyssah Hall
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The “ECLIPSE: What’s Your Perspective?” exhibit highlights the instinctual work of Malik Laing and Jonathan Freemantle Arthurs. Laing and Arthurs are photographers and orchestrators of their community darkroom and photography workspace known as Eclipse Spaces in San Bernardino. The exhibit showcases the intersections of being Black, artists and creators of Eclipse. The exhibit will be held at the Riverside Art Museum (RAM) until September 28, 2025.
The exhibition was curated by RAM curator Mariah Green and produced in collaboration with Bum Diary, Gabe Stein, Juan Karlo Muro and Vincente Velazquez. Laing said this project came to be from a collective of people who have all been supporting each other over the years.
“Photography is something that is a universal thing, anyone can enjoy it. But to come in here and have shows that have a lot of attention to detail when it’s designed, color use, and so many things we cared about, I just think it’s dope to see effort [and] have that reciprocated back. The community loved it, and it was super cool,” Laing said.
The exhibit held its opening reception to the public on April 3, 2025, and Laing said he hopes exhibit viewers gain inspiration from it to create projects of their own.
Laing and Arthurs met in 2019 at a photographer workshop in LA. They were the only two that lived in the IE and decided to network. During the pandemic, Laing began shooting film and found that the process to retrieve the images was too tedious. He reached out to Arthurs to learn how to develop film. From there, the two created the concept of Eclipse Spaces in 2021, and opened the studio to the public in 2022.
The Eclipse studio is an “all-in-one workshop” for photography that offers a portrait station with backdrops and lighting equipment, a community desktop for scanning, researching, or video editing software. There is also a darkroom where prints can be made and film can be developed. The main focus of the space is to offer a comfortable hub for local artists to create and express their artistic interests.
“Everyone there has something that they can contribute, whether you’re a painter, whether you’re a photographer, we have magazines, archives of things you can [use for] research. It’s like a place of love, of creativity, music, all types of stuff. I think that’s what keeps it going,” Laing said.
An LA native, Arthurs comes from Belizean and Jamaican parents. His father introduced him to photography by always carrying a camera with him on their family travels.
Arthurs is a husband, a father of four and an entrepreneur who has followed in his fathers footsteps, snapping important life moments to share with his community. A photograph of Arthur’s daughter ice skating titled “Black Girl Joy” is also featured in the exhibit.
Laing was raised by his East Coast mother and his West Coast father who are both musicians. He grew up connecting to his community by assisting his mother in helping out others and working with organizations like the Boys and Girls Club.
He credits his upbringing for showing him how to respect people and was influenced by his mother’s ability to move to California. She didn’t know anyone, yet she was still able to create and be part of a community.
Working with Green as the curator was an easy choice for Laing who said he didn’t want to give the responsibility to anyone else. The respect, care, communication and collaboration Green brings to her work is something Laing appreciates. He and Arthurs have known Green for over two years now.
Green is also an artist and has been specializing in painting for about 10 years. Her art focuses on her personal afro futuristic point of view and she also journals and draws.
Green has been a curator at RAM for about one year and the Eclipse exhibit is her second showing with the museum. She has always had an interest in photography and appreciates Inland Empire photographers capturing images locally because of the different stories that are displayed.
“I’ve been making art for some time, but I don’t really care for attention on myself. I would much rather that be used as a path for others, because I wouldn’t feel right going somewhere on my own,” Green said.
“I love that Malik and Jonathan have never been people to not share. There’s something really connected to them as photographers, people, business owners where sharing is at the center of it…This is just a portion of what they do when it comes to their own work, community work, [and] community involvement,” Green voiced.
Green believes this is just the beginning for Laing and Arthurs, and looks forward to participating and supporting her friends and colleagues in their journey.
One of the reasons for the exhibit is to inform the public about the Eclipse Spaces darkroom since it is a main part of their business and they plan to host workshops in the future.
“Whether it’s my love for skateboarding or maybe this alternative artist that maybe not everyone thinks Black people might like, when you have someone who has that perspective, documenting those things and highlighting us in a certain way, that’s the authenticity that I care to bring to the things I truly enjoy,” Laing stated.
