Find your Voice

Dawoud Bey approaches the idea of using photography as a way of finding his voice in the project “Night Coming Tenderly, Black. Trough photography Bey talks about history that no one talks about, a history that is not documented. The slavery of African Americans. Most of his photographs are dark with no people because he tries to imagine how slaves were trying to escape through the dark landscapes, underground railroads, and houses. And he wanted to show the world that part of the history and preserve it. The lake photo is one of the most powerful because he doesn’t only imagine that slaves were there, he affirms that they were there because he felt their presence.

Carrie Mae Weems approach using photography to find her voice in the “The Kitchen Table Series” project. She set a table at her kitchen and photographed herself and her family to talk about the role of not only African Americans women, in general women that historically have played a role in the society about stay home with family. Weems wanted to show in photographs how women take part in all situations of the family but not seen or appreciated and there has been a battle between men and women. And she shows that in the picture with her husband he is sitting on a table reading the newspaper and she is standing behind him and she is in the dark area in which her face is hard to see it.

Dawoud Bey and Carrie Mae Weems projects have a similar approach to their projects. They focus to find their voice through photography, and they want to show the invisible to be visible. In addition, both talk about African American communities. Also, they have some differences, Bey’s photographs do not have people, faces, portraits as his usually work because he is talking about the past, the history of slavery. Furthermore, his photographs are in different places. On the contrary Weems’s pictures are portraits and people with facial expressions. Also, in only one place, her kitchen.

I think Dawoud Bey wants to show the history that nobody talks about, he wants to educate people through photography when he said: “to re-shape the world”.