Carrie Mae Weems --- Untitled (Woman and phone) from the series The Kitchen Table, 1990
Recreation of The Kitchen Table Series
Carrie's Kitchen Table Series relates to my thoughts and routines in life, especially, the one where she's by herself. The dining table is one of many places I bond with my parents, especially the food we make for each other strengthens that bond. However, my mind races, whether alone or with others present. But by myself, I let them out through my hobbies, or usually when I eat. This picture represents my inner self, resting but trying to better myself each day at a time; not just for me, but also for my loved ones.
Susan Sontag's excerpt from On Photography
- "Photographs furnish evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we're shown a photograph of it. In one version of its utility, the camera record incriminates. Starting with their use by the Paris police in the murderous roundup of Communards in June 1871, photographs became a useful tool of modern states in the surveillance and control of their increasingly mobile populations. In another version of its utility, the camera record justifies. A photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened. The picture may distort; but there is always a presumption that something exists, or did exist, which is like what's in the picture."
- "There is an aggression implicit in every use of the camera. This is as evident in the 1840s and 1850s, photography's glorious first two decades, as in all the succeeding decades, during which technology made possible an ever increasing spread of that mentality which looks at the world as a set of potential photographs."
Photos have their purpose, they capture what is already there and what has happened. However, the context of said picture adds to the value of the subject, which can also apply to artwork like paintings and drawings. Photos taken and art made by you, represent your mindset inspired by certain events in your life, which feel authentic to you.
Revisiting Carrie Mae Weems’s Landmark “Kitchen Table Series” by Jacqui Palumbo
- "Everyone can relate to this work,” Sann said. “It’s not just Black women; it’s white women, Asian women. Men can see the women in their lives—memories from their childhood or scenes from their marriage or their family life. It’s so universal and yet representation like this is so rare."
- "Weems, playing the muse, embraces her partner, their arms forming a single spiral. She’s alone, folding into herself, a half-empty bottle of wine in front of her. She laughs with her friends, their movement leaving spectral trails across the frame."
Carie's work can relate to people of many backgrounds and their personal lives, highlighting the little and important things that make up our lives. Sometimes, it's the little things in life that make us feel safe and happy, are what get us through the hardships we face. Through experiencing the rest of the world, we will have a better introspection about ourselves and how we address other people.
The New York Times --- How Carrie Mae Weems Rewrote the Rules of Image-Making by Megan O'Grady
- "Photography can enslave and revictimize, Weems has shown us; it can also, potentially, set us free from our inherited bias and expectations."
- "Her black‑and‑white photo series of a bare kitchen table shows a round robin of characters appearing and disappearing, forcing us to contemplate what body language and facial expressions intimate about relationships. My favorite video, “Italian Dreams” (2006), includes a moment that shows the back of a woman sitting alone at a desk in a darkened room with only a high single window, through which we can see blue sky and falling snow. In that single image, Carrie Mae captures the loneliness that possibly every artist experiences as we face the task of trying to make something new."
Our view of the world can change, for better or for worse, depending on which course we take in our lives. Through self-reflection, we can help ourselves in our hardships.
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