Raina Allmond is a Maryland based photographer, mixed media artist, and creative director. 

Raina Allmond created the photographic series Outside the Lines in the spirit of her former professor and renowned photographer Linda Day Clark (known for her documentation of Baltimore’s North Avenue in addition to the Gee’s Bend series). Outside the Lines is a series that explores the landscape of Baltimore City and Allmond’s immediate neighborhoods. As the series of images unfolds, Allmond begins to cultivate a deeper inquiry and therefore understanding of her surroundings that results in an overall appreciation for the city’s innate beauty and culture. 

With Outside the Lines, Allmond poses a critical overarching question: “How can those that aim to gentrify (our community) see the potential but we can’t see how much culture, art, and history we’ve contributed to the area?” This inquiry directly highlights the social conditions Black residents of Baltimore City face - navigating a city still grappling with the impacts of redlining along with continued inequitable access to development capital and competitive wealth. This historically inequitable access to community sustaining resources ultimately slows efforts of Black reinvestment back into the community in a manner that cultivates total ownership and a halt to gentrification. The series places emphasis on the immediate architecture of Baltimore City as well as the ways in which the people of the community inhabit the spaces they occupy in spite of outside (dis)investment and looming gentrification, by centering celebration, joy, communion, and valuing one’s self and one's neighbors. This is similar in practice to the ways in which Black people, historically and universally, occupy Black spaces. 

While the images strongly foreground and center the celebratory and communal spirit of Black people and Black communities, there is a significant dichotomy at play within Allmond’s imagery that requires a deeper unpacking and discussion. Viewers are encouraged to look beneath the surface of the foreground and take into perspective the subtle (or outwardly insidious) environmental and social conditions the subjects are grounded in because these conditions have historically impacted the Black community in Baltimore City. Outside the Lines documents Black communities in Baltimore City, however this sentiment remains the same for Black residents in other predominantly Black cities as well as Black people in overall Black spaces. There are systemic forces at play attempting to disrupt, occupy, and displace Black people and communities. While at the same time, these same systemic structures are attracted to and profit from the culture, energy, and vitality Black people bring to Black spaces.  

These images serve as evidence that Black people continue to forage community, joy, and a spirit of togetherness in the face of the social conditions in which Black communities are rooted. This is the dichotomy at play that warrants acknowledgement and critical questioning.

Black joy is rooted in the continued spirit of overcoming and resilience. Raina Allmond understands and elaborates that, “This is my neighborhood. The beauty within the city might be ‘unconventional’ like coloring outside the lines, but it’s there. Explore your neighborhood with a new mindset and you might discover something beautiful.”

About Raina Allmond:

Raina Allmond is a Maryland based photographer, mixed media artist and creative director. Allmond graduated with her Bachelor’s in Urban Arts from Coppin State University in 2018. Throughout her college career she has been a fellow in the Urban Arts Leadership Program with the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, a mentor for the first Annual Baltimore Bloomberg Summer Arts Program, and has worked as a photographer for multiple organizations and clubs on Coppin University’s campus. Since graduating, Raina Allmond has focused on entrepreneurial endeavors and refining her artistry.

IG: ladyyrainacorn