Dawoud Bay is an American photographer from Queens New York and heās the best know for his good scale art for photographs and for the number of portraits he has taken from the streets of New York. He has hearing loss, however, he took the streets of New York and started to take photos from everyday people from the streets. He took to the streets of Harlem in the 1970s to show a difference to the blacks who are portrayed in a negative light. He wants to show people that the blacks can be portrayed in a positive way in the arts and popular culture.
The project that captures my eye was āThe Birmingham Projectā.This project really got my attention the most because it was about an important event that happened to the people in Birmingham Alabama when they got bombed by the KKK on the 16th St. Baptist Church. He created this project to show people the two different sets of portraits of one person at the age they lost their lives when the bombing happened and the second photo is a picture of those same victims if they were still alive.
Carrie Mae Weems is an American photographer and artist. She is best know for her project āThe Kitchen Table Seriesā. Miss Weems is from a small town, she had a lot of time to think about what it means to show not only her voice but many others too. Which is the main reason why she started the āThe Kitchen Table Seriesā. The series was her way to show what needs to be done in her own way. It was a way to not only help African American women but to help women find a voice that needs to get out there.
The impact that her project had on the people was to show a different way of how photos are taking. The photos in her project were all taking her own home. From the Kitchen table and with the single light that she had in the room.
This is the photo that got my eye the most. You can see a woman who looked to be crying from what could have been a hard day at work or she got into an argument from a loved one. This one photo has more power for me and to show women have feelings and they need to show them.
Both Mr. Bay and Miss Weems are a photographer and one of the ways they are the same is they want to show people what Black people go through and to show a positive side. The way they are is Mr. Bay wanted to bring people back in time and to show that blacks can be painted in a positive way to popular culture. While Miss Weems used her own home to help women show their voices. The words by Mr. Bay āTo re-shape the worldā can help people have a better understanding of what photos can do for the people and it can give people a chance to see what it was like to people in other time periods.
The Birmingham Project is really powerful. I think the series gets its power from making the loss of those children really concrete and visible in terms of the years of life lost..
You picked a really interesting example from the Kitchen Table project. Weems puts two things in the frame and creates a story about them. The phone in the foreground makes us think that the woman is waiting for it to ring. I love how the phone is backlit, dark and ominous.