Some projects are assignments. This one was a testimony.
Over two days in Atlanta — Saturday, May 3, and Sunday, May 4, 2025 — our team had the honor of sitting with Bishop Dexter B. Lamar and his sons — Jalen, Christian, and Joshua — not just to photograph them, but to witness them. What started as a portrait and branding session for the Bishop and his three sons quickly became something much bigger: a documentary about what it means to lead, to grieve, and to keep walking in purpose when the ground shifts beneath you.
This project sits alongside Bishop Lamar's new book, The Raising of 4 Kings: A Spiritual Playbook for Fatherhood and Legacy — and honestly, the documentary feels like its companion piece. Where the book lays out the wisdom, the film shows the wisdom being lived out in real time, by a man who leads Greater High Hope Ministries and is still, every day, figuring out how to lead his own household through loss.
Day One: Image
Day one was about image — capturing the Bishop and each of his sons individually, giving them the kind of branding portraits that speak before they ever say a word. Strength. Presence. Legacy. But even as the lights and backdrops came together, you could feel there was a deeper story sitting just beneath the surface.
This wasn't a story we had to manufacture. It was already there, in the pauses, the laughter that catches itself mid-breath, the way four men who share blood and calling look at each other when they think no one's watching.
What the Camera Found
That story is what our documentary crew was there to find. While the portrait sessions were happening, our team moved quietly through the space, capturing the real, unscripted moments between a father and his sons — Jalen, Christian, and Joshua, men who are still learning how to carry a household, a ministry, and each other, after losing the woman who held it all together.
The Raising of 4 Kings is a story about grief that doesn't get the final word. It's about a family in ministry who had to learn how to minister to themselves first. It's about legacy — not the kind you inherit, but the kind you rebuild, brick by brick, in real time, in front of a camera that never once asked them to perform.
What we walked away with wasn't just footage. It was a family's willingness to be seen mid-process — not healed, not finished, but faithful. And that's the kind of favor no lighting setup can manufacture.
- Photography & Documentary Production: Insomniatic Media
- Featuring: Bishop Dexter B. Lamar & Sons | Greater High Hope Ministries