Personal Identity as a Black American Woman
Abstract
I am presenting select pieces in the form of photography that represent exploring my personal identity as a Black woman in America. I started exploring what it meant to be Black in America and moved into exploring what it meant to me by using photography. My pieces consist of showing how I started to see myself through different stages of my identity and why that came to be due to the negative stereotypes that were placed on Black Americans since The Reconstruction Era. I reference a contemporary artist Lorna Simpson in some of my pieces who used gestures of a black female body along with photo text to bring the violence against black women’s bodies to light. Using the visual representation of that, I explore how I felt people saw me and moving into how I see myself and how I am able to reshape my own personal identity.
I am presenting select pieces in the form of photography that represent exploring my personal identity as a Black woman in America. I started exploring what it meant to be Black in America and moved into exploring what it meant to me by using photography. My pieces consist of showing how I started to see myself through different stages of my identity and why that came to be due to the negative stereotypes that were placed on Black Americans since The Reconstruction Era. I reference a contemporary artist Lorna Simpson in some of my pieces who used gestures of a black female body along with photo text to bring the violence against black women’s bodies to light. Using the visual representation of that, I explore how I felt people saw me and moving into how I see myself and how I am able to reshape my own personal identity.