- Dawoud Bey wanted to use photography as a way to represent how blacks were portrayed in art and popular culture. Bey stated that he wanted to create photographs that conveyed a deep complex human being. In his “Night Coming Tenderly Black” project that focused on the Underground Railroad, secret routes used by runaway slaves in the 1800s, he captured photographs that had no figures just dark and unidentified landscapes. Bey wanted the viewer to be in the perspective of the fugitive slaves and picture what they saw and felt seeking freedom through these dark landscapes. He wanted to remind people of black history and liberation.
- Carrie Mae Weems wanted to use photography to give all women a voice through the “The Kitchen Table Series”. With this series she wanted to show what she describes as a battle within families all happen at the kitchen table. Her photographs portray the good and bad moments all happen at the site of the kitchen table in a women’s life.
- To find my own voice I need to find something I am passionate about and would want to portray in my own photos.
Category: Discussion 1 (Page 2 of 3)
Dawoud Bey’s passion for photography stems from his deep interest in wanting to describe black culture and the deep complex humanity that’s acquainted. Bey says that the camera for him became a way of having a voice in the world. Despite his hearing loss, his vision blossomed and directed us through a perplexed, deeper level and understanding of this subject. One of his projects I really enjoyed hearing about “Night Coming Tenderly Black” targets the radical silhouette of history, focusing on the Underground Railroad. He aimed to make “the invisible, visible”. Bey conveyed this by taking photographs of the historical site of the railroad in Ohio. The photographs were different from his usual style. With the exclusion of human figures and faces, what is left is a dark and mysterious landscape. The impact he sought with this project gives the viewer the opportunity to immerse themselves in the photographs which are in the perspective of the slaves looking for freedom. Ultimately, Dawoud Bey knew the importance of history and wanted to remind people of liberation.
Carrie Mae Weems is another photographer who found her voice by creating “The Kitchen Table Series”. She wanted to know what it meant to develop your own voice. In that regard, the kitchen table project started in a curious, spontaneous way as a response to an organic way of finding her voice. Mae wanted to be a voice for women. In the project, she uses a single light source, and all the photographs were centered around the kitchen table. Topics such as family, polygamy/relationship between sexes, children, an array of everyday emotions flow through the compositions. The impact she created with the series were bringing up and making the viewer conscious about the tender subject of social dynamics between men and women, the social living arrangement and social contract.
I believe I can find my own voice through photography by integrating my sense of beauty and what I think beauty is. We all have different styles and our personalities spill through our creations. I want the photographs to speak for itself as well as carry my vision and perception with authentic personality.
1.Dawoud Bey found his voice through the camera and pictures from his handicap of loss of hearing. With that in mind he is able to compensate through how he views the world. He had a project called “Night Coming Tenderly Black” that focused on the time of the Underground Railroad. There were no subjects in the photos just dark landscapes. He wanted the viewer to see through the eyes of the fugitive slaves moving through the landscape through the dark landscapes. Although you cannot see the slaves or the railroad he wanted to make “the invisible, visible” for the viewer.
2.Carrie Mae Weems was able to find her voice through her series called “The Kitchen Table Series” by realizing that their needed to be voice for also all women. All in the comfort of her own home in her own way. With her project she wanted to display the spaces in domesticity that belong to woman. She describe the various situations that she describe as “battles” such as, family, monogamy, polygomy and sexes.
I believe I can find my voice by knowing what I’m trying to convey.
Dawoud Bey
Dawoud Bey found his artistic voice in photography by developing a deep interest in people, particularly urban communities — a skill he refers to as,“Seeing Deeply”. From his analysis of contemporary media, Dawoud states African Americans have very often been viewed through the lens of social pathology; the study of social problems (such as crime or alcoholism) that views them as diseased conditions of the social organism.
Dawoud wanted to challenge this narrative of the African American experience in pop culture. Through his photography, he hoped to change perceptions and stereotypes by describing the black subject in a way that is deep and complex as the experiences of anyone else. His portraits absorb you into the realty of urban men, women and children as go about their everyday life in Harlem, this approach retains an intimate experience, and a real sense of interiority to go beneath the surface and truly explore the subject.
Dawoud’s philosophy is that art should challenge our perceptions of the world. It should be transformative experience whereby the viewer leaves the exhibition with a new perspective. As illustrated in his works “Nigh Coming Tenderly Black”, his photography is physically and metaphorically “making the invisible, visible.”
Carrie Mae Weems
Carrie Mae Weems uses her photography to provoke thought and conversation around the social dynamics that happen around the kitchen table; conversation surrounding family, monogamy, polygamy, the battle between men and women. The Kitchen Table challenges our idea of domestic space and the domestic woman’s role in society. The table offers a metaphor for a social battleground, power and control.
How can you find your own voice?
There’s a quote that I stumbled upon recently that states “Passion is about finding yourself, but purpose is about losing yourself in something bigger than You”. I think that’s how we can find our voice as creatives. Finding fulfillment beyond the immediate satisfaction that comes from simply doing what you enjoy , but also serving a bigger mission and touching the lives of others in meaningful ways. In my opinion your artistic voice should be linked to purpose, wanting to make a difference — to help, to give, to serve.
Dawoud Bey found his voice in his work by showing the subject and deep interest in wanting to show or describe as he say’s the black subject in ways that are complex as the experiences that anyone else has by reshaping the world around you in new ways from one person to the next. It’s a very way intimate how he gets these photographs and continues to refocus on the black culture through art and popular culture as well. A deep complex “Humanity” as Dawoud explained it as. One of his pieces that he has done is of the reimagined of history of the “Underground Railroad” instead of it showing off the secret routes use by the slaves, instead these photo’s show places dark and dreamlike, unidentified landmarks to make the viewer feel like your one of those slaves moving through these places trying to find a way out of this horrible time, which is what Dawoud was trying to convey.
Carrie Mae Weems found her voice by making this project called the the “kitchen table project” which for her she saw that it was something of a sense that she got of what needed to happen, but what needed to be. A voice not just for African American women, but for all Women in general. The series impacts the domesticity that these types of places historically belonged to women and its a site of the battle around the family, sexes, and much more. Basically most of bad, sad, angry moments play out in the kitchen of a women’s life and she shows this in her photographs!
I think for me to find my voice I say I have to put my time into something that is important to me and to a wide range community to get a voice out, to show that I have this take on this particular subject and I want to tell the story in a different way.
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