Welcome to Pho·tog Friday!
Not many parents would allow their sixteen year old to move to San Fransisco to study modern dance although, not many parents had Carrie Mae Weems as a daughter. Born in 1953, Weems knew from a young age that she wanted to explore the art world and use her voice to create change. By using photography and video as her main mediums, Weems' content focuses mainly on issues faced by African Americans such as racism, gender relations, politics and personal identity. In some of her images, Weems relies on humor to expose harmful stereotypes. An accomplished artist to say the least, Weems' work has been displayed in over fifty exhibitions around the world.
One of my favorite series by Weems is titled Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment from 2008. In this particular photographic series, Weems explores the human rights movement within the United States as well as around the globe. Weems teamed up with students from Savannah College of Art and Design to reenact pivotal Civil Rights movements as well as new movements that have occurred over the last forty years. In the image below, we are seeing two students act out the Bombing of Hiroshima; U.S. Troops bombed Hiroshima, Japan during World War II in 1945:
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| Weems, Carrie Mae, The Tragedy of Hiroshima, 2008. |
The two students in the car represent President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie Kennedy moments before he was assassinated in 1963:
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| Weems, Carrie Mae, The First Major Blow, 2008. |
The young man lying on the table below is acting out the moment when Malcom X was assassinated in 1965:
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| Weems, Carrie Mae, The Assassination of Medgar, Martin, Malcom, 2008. |
A scene reenacted from the Kent State Shooting in 1970, when four students were killed and nine wounded on campus by the Ohio National Guard:
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| Weems, Carrie Mae, Suspended Belief, 2008. |
A female student portrays Pakistan's former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, who served two consecutive terms from 1988 to 1996:
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| Weems, Carrie Mae, The Fall of Bhutto, 2008. |
"With young people (who were not yet born) acting out famous archetypal moments of assassination, witness and mourning, a profound meaning unfolds in their staged theatricality. Weems reveals to her actors and to the audience difficulties presented by the events and their cultural assignment to our collective memory. The immediacy of the performances contrasts against the distance and remove of the real events from our past" (artnet.com).To find out more about Carrie Mae Weems, her Constructing History series and her work in general, please be sure to check out her segment from PBS' Art 21 series below:
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01. "Carrie Mae Weems." Carrie Mae Weems. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2013.
02. Weems, Carrie Mae. Carrie Mae Weems. Digital image. Carrie Mae Weems. N.p., 2008. Web. 28 Aug. 2013.
03. "Carrie Mae Weems." Carrie Mae Weems. Gallery Paule Anglim, n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2013.
04. "Carrie Mae Weems "Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment"" Artnet.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2013.
05. "Carrie Mae Weems." PBS Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2013.