NICK DRAIN, WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? ON BLACKNESS, IMAGES AND (IN)VISIBILITY, 2020
Nick Drain writes from a theoretical and historical lens on how the imaging of black people has served as a tool of white supremacy and oppression through modern history. Finally, he introduces the concept of selective visibility and "dark sousveillance" as an alternative strategy for black individuals in projected futures…
LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER, PIER 54: A HUMAN RIGHT TO PASSAGE, 2014
In Pier 54: A Human Right to Passage, Frazier pays homage to her predecessors, documentary photographers of the late 19th century in which she shares the desire to comment on social, political, and economic conditions…
RASHOD TAYLOR, MY AMERICA
My America is an examination of what it's like to live in America as a Black man. The wet plate collodion process was first introduced in the 1850’s. I use this process to connect the past to the present, and to explore the atrocities of slavery, Jim Crow and the institutional and systematic racism that remains so tightly woven into the fabric of American society…
KWAME BRATHWAITE, SELECTED WORKS
Inspired in part by the writings of Marcus Garvey and the teachings of Carlos Cooks, Kwame Brathwaite's photography created the visual overture for the Black is Beautiful Movement in the late 50's and early 60’s…
AWOL ERIZKU, SELECTED WORKS
Los Angeles-based artist Awol Erizku’s multi-disciplinary practice encompasses photography, sculpture, painting, installation, film, and sound to shape an artistic language that exists at the intersection of image making and language…
VANESSA CHARLOT, BLACK WOMAN'S SHADOW
In America, she lives in a perpetual state of trauma. To survive, she moves performatively through life, without processing her anguish. She symbolizes what has become the American norm—grieving, coping and healing in the shadows while carrying the burden that is one’s Blackness…
RAHIM FORTUNE, HARDTACK, LOOSE JOINTS, 2024
In the follow-up to his breakout monograph I can't stand to see you cry, Fortune borrows from the language of vernacular and archival photography to interrogate the historical relationship of his community to photography; rooted in the landscape…
DAVID WOJNAROWICZ, SEX SERIES, 1988-89
Working in New York City’s East Village during the late 1980s, Wojnarowicz created art that was both intensely political and deeply personal. The Sex Series emerged from an overwhelming sense of loss—of loved ones, of privacy…
AMBER N. FORD, MISTAKEN IDENTITY, 2018
The series, Mistaken Identity, shown in the group exhibition A Color Removed, tackles the question, “Who has the right to safety?” by presenting a collection of images of everyday objects that have been mistaken as weapons and led to the deaths of people of color at the hands of law enforcement officers…
PAZ ERRÁZURIZ, LA MANZANA DE ADÁN (ADAM’S APPLE)
The need to investigate environments wholly condemned in the oppressive context of the Chilean dictatorship (1973–90) led the photographer Paz Errázuriz to embark on a project on marginalized subjects that she would pursue over the course of several years…
SANDRA BREWSTER, ROOTS, 2021-2022
In her outdoor photographic installation, Roots, Toronto-based artist Sandra Brewster explores the long history of Black presence in the urban wilderness. Developed during her tenure as Koerner Artist in Residence at Evergreen Brick Works, the photographs document the area’s plant life, greeting visitors as they explore the valley…
GEORGE PLATT LYNES, SELECT NUDES
George Platt Lynes was a renowned American fashion and commercial photographer who enjoyed the prime of his career during the 1930s and 1940s. Although he was very sought after by major fashion publications for his beautiful images and stunning compositions, his real passion was the male nude, which he photographed extensively in the privacy of his studio…
MATTHEW LEIFHEIT, TO DIE ALIVE, 2022
To Die Alive conjures a hedonistic fever dream of Fire Island’s historic gay communities. The book contains 77 photographs by New York artist Matthew Leifheit taken by night over the past five years…
IMANI DENNISON AND LATETRA METTS-OWENS, NAKED TRUTH
In the series titled “Naked Truth,” a collaboration between fine artist Latetra Metts-Owens and Photographer, Imani Dennison, explores the truth behind people naked selves. In phase one of this project, subjects were interviewed and recorded on film, revealing things about themselves that were both uncomfortable and secret…
ZOJA KALINOVSKIS, UNSEEN
Inspired by classical sculpture, Unseen portrays disabled bodies with reverence - as worthy of art instead of objects of pity. The series challenges the narrative that disability is synonymous with suffering and seeks to dismantle societal prejudices.
PAT WARD WILLIAMS, ACCUSED BLOWTORCH PADLOCK, 1986
One of Williams’ best known works is Accused/Blowtorch/Padlock (1986), which consists of an image of a black man tied to a tree (originally published in Life magazine in 1937 and not attributed to a specific photographer), surrounded by text expressing the artist's reaction to this image…
ZORA J MURFF, THE DEVIL HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
In this collection of collages, Murff uses methodologies of enlightened witnessing and appropriation to demonstrate how a global conspiracy of anti-Black genocide has existed and continues to persist through systemic oppression…
KENNEDI CARTER, RIDIN’ SUCKA FREE
Ridin’ Sucka Free is a series that came about during conversations surrounding Black life in relation to horsemanship and agriculture. Pop culture’s interest in Black cowboys quickly rose following the release of Lil Nas X’s song Old Town Road…
WHITNEY HUBBS, SELECT WORKS
My work is born out of looking and being engaged with both past and contemporary photography. It is also born out of unique, individual experiences. The work I’ve encountered lately has been looking at itself in the mirror, and now I’m looking at myself in the mirror per se. A personal kind of self-reflection…
ANDRES SERRANO, PISS CHRIST, 1987
Andres Serrano's Piss Christ sparked outrage in the United States when it was exhibited in 1989. He immersed a crucifix he bought in an antique shop in his own urine. Up close, the crucifix takes on a monumental air, while the work’s dark, provocative mood evokes the end of an era…