1. Dawoud Bey uses his voice in photography as response to his hearing loss and how he has seen black people portrayed in art and pop culture .The compensating he has done by wanting to “see more” due to his hearing loss he believes is higher than most people do and isn’t surprised that photography is his profession and his interaction with the world. He also wanted to show black people as the complex human they were vs the social pathology he believed they were being viewed as. In his more recent work Night Coming tenderly ,Black a reimagining of the underground railroad he tried to make the invisible visible in a way that resonates and is palpable. He used no faces or figures only what he believed the runaway slaves would see as they were trying to escape to freedom.
2. The Carrie Mae Weems project is about the place that is typically held for women and the battle around family, the sexes, intimate relationships , and the domestic space which is shown as taking place around the kitchen table. She uses her voice to speak for women and to highlight the question of how to alter the domestic space. To also show the social dynamics between men and women and the keys both genders hold in regards to the future.
3. In order to find your voice you should explore each and every avenue of expression that you find interesting. No two paths are the same, it isn’t easily accomplished and it almost is never found by accident. Finding your voice is something that should be as natural as breathing. It is a culmination of skill, and the expression of ones inner most self and desires to create and to be understood.
Good recognition of Dawoud Bey confronting the social pathology in the representation of the African- American community. I saw his photos at the Whitney Museum last year, very moving.
Good ideas about finding your voice.