Frank Dorrey’s Vibrant & Surrealist Digital Collages: Capturing Black Community, Joy and Intimacy

NYC-based artist and musician Frank Dorrey has been creating vibrant and surrealist digital collages on social media since 2016. He mainly uses his iPhone to create them, allowing him to utilize photographs from his daily life that feature his friends and family and Black people in Black communities. This sense of immediacy makes his pieces feel authentic, as the collages themselves often portray scenes of everyday life. Black people are found queuing at the cinema, waiting for the lights before crossing the streets, or even walking their dogs through the neighbourhood.

Despite being digital collages, these pieces exude the same level of intimacy and rawness that photographs do. However, the surrealist nature of the pieces adds a new dimension to Dorrey’s work. As Black people in the United States continue to grapple for their basic human rights rights, their experiences often feel quite literally “surreal.” Dorrey’s collages highlight how Black people are othered despite living their lives just like everyone else in the country, doing ordinary everyday things. 

These pieces help to share experiences from American Black communities with everyone so that viewers can understand their shared humanity and challenge narratives that seek to alienate them instead. This is why Frank Dorrey’s vibrat and surreal digital collages are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Reduced Inequalities.

Black joy is often the focal point of Dorrey’s pieces. In a world where Black pain and sorrow are often represented in the media, representations of Black joy become a testament to their resilience and a healing celebration of Black life. These sentiments were also echoed by the 2015 Black Joy Project, a movement that aims to centre black joy in real life, started by New York City-based writer Kleaver Cruz. 

In an interview with British Vogue, Cruz explained that he started the movement because “Amplifying black joy is not about dismissing or creating an ‘alternative’ black narrative that ignores the realities of our collective pain; rather, […] it is about using that joy as an entry into understanding the oppressive forces we navigate through as a means to imagine and create a world free of them.”

Frank Dorrey’s vibrant and surrealist digital collages bring everyday Black life into focus, celebrating joy, community and intimacy with a sense of immediacy and authenticity. Through surrealism, Dorrey highlights the unique experiences and resilience of Black people, challenging narratives that often alienate them. Then, by centring Black joy in his work, Dorrey celebrates Black resilience and offers a powerful means of empathy and understanding for all viewers. His work fosters connection and compassion across communities.

Find out more about surrealist digital collages and other pieces by Frank Dorrey on his Instagram @frankdorrey.