Finding your voice

In the interview with Dawoud Bey, Bey approaches the idea of using photography as a way of finding his voice. A good example will be with the exhibition “Night Coming Tenderly, Black”. The idea of the exhibition is to reimagine the history of the underground railroad by having viewers be placed on unidentified places, such as the woods or field areas in the dark. As Bey mentions “I’m trying to imagine them through the eyes of fugitive slaves moving through the landscapes under cover of darkness”. One of Bey’s work that stood out to me aside from the photograph he took by Lake Erie, was the photograph Untitled #2 (Trees and Farmhouse), 2017. What I enjoy about this photograph is the fact that there is a house in the background, and front of the house is a tree then there is another tree right in front of us almost blocking the way near the center of the image making it look like a pattern in some way. Anyone looking at this image gets the feeling as if they are standing right in front of the tree. Let’s not forget how the image is in black and white giving an idea of how dark it is at that moment.
After seeing the interview with Carrie Mae Weems, Mae approaches the use of photography to find her voice, for instance, the kitchen table project. The kitchen table series involves different moments that happened in one specific space or place in time. The photographs usually involved a woman who demonstrates different scenarios with her family, lover, children, and friends and also how their relationship changes. One of Mae’s photographs that stood out for me was when both of her friends were supporting her. The image demonstrates she’s going through some difficult times and both her friends are supporting her. What helps support the idea is the use of lighting Mae kept throughout her series, which demonstrates how tense the situation can be. Another will be that they remained in black and white photographs but is what helps give the idea of saving or remembering a memory of a specific time and place.
Both Dawoud Bey and Carrie Mae Weems approach photography to find their voice by remembering the past, our history. Both also gave the same atmosphere through the use of black and white. Yet both differ as Bey will usually express his ideas through photographing other people or places as expressing their emotions yet with Mae, she used herself to portray her own emotions and you can feel them through her photographs of the kitchen table series. Thinking about how both Bey and Mae showed their voice through photography does prove how photography has the power, as Bey said “to re-shape the world”. I do believe photography can help change the world by conveying a message. To do so, the viewer has to be open-minded to see the photographers’ point of view another will be on how it can connect the viewer with the photograph for a moment.