Carrie Mae Weems  recreates  photographys by Zealys to tell a story. She uses appropriation , a technique in which modern artists borrow and alter existing images in order to give new meaning . In this case Carrie Mae Weems explores the African American experience from slavery. She uses many images of individuals in normal everyday life as a slave, I have noticed that many of her images  are depicted in black and white, some with an overlay of red. Black and white photographs tend to hide flaws . The red overlay depicts the hardship , blood, sweat and tears during slavery.  Using texts with the images conveys the exact story that Miss Weems is telling. There is a saying that a picture tells a thousand words, But a picture with text attached to it is priceless. Without texts the images would tell less of a story and each viewer would form their own opinion of  the image. The text somehow makes the story more concrete and conveys uniformity. Her photograph ” Some say you were the spitting image of evil” clearly tells me that the artist is depicting a black young whose color of her skin “black” is compared to evil during slavery. Black equal bad, nothing good even though the woman  is a human being  who has the same blood running through her veins as every other race.

I think the story that is told through Miss Weems  photographic project is modern and the subtitles for each photograph gives a clear picture of what the artist is conveying. It gives the viewer a chance to enjoy the story depicted. I enjoyed going through the gallery and the portraits are very informative especially with the text attached.