Weekly Selfie 1 - Roaming

Aileen Herrera Ojeda

“On Photography”, Susan Sontag

Something very interesting that really got me thinking while reading this piece was how photographs are a capture of a moment which are tiny pieces of the world. It's also such an accessible form of art, everyone nowadays carries around a phone with the ability to take pictures, and everyday moments can be captured and have it mean something. We can remember moments and almost feel like we are reliving it through a different lens. Also, the diverse ways that photography can be used, it can be used to capture important moments, used to prove the existence of someone or something, used as evidence in legal situations, and many more things. 

“Finally, the most grandiose result of the photographic enterprise is to give us the sense that we can hold the whole world in our heads -- as an anthology of images.” (Susan Sontag, on photography)

“To collect photographs is to collect the world.” (Susan Sontag, on photography)

“Revisiting Carrie Mae Weems' Landmark “Kitchen Table Series”’, Jacqui Palumbo

I had seen Carrie Mae Weems' “Kitchen Table Series”  in previous classes but it was never an in-depth look at the series. Now after reading about this series, I can more greatly appreciate Weems' work. It’s so interesting how such a simple idea or concept of taking pictures at the kitchen table can have such a profound meaning when dissecting it further. The series is so relatable and feels so human. The series is telling a story that feels familiar.

“Weems’ black-and-white photographs are like mirrors, each reflecting a collective experience: how selfhood shifts through the passage of time; the sudden distance between people, both passable and impassable; the roles that women accumulate and oscillate between; how life emanates from the small space we occupy in the world.” (Jacqui Palumbo)

“As she fired her camera shutter in her kitchen, Weems knew she was achieving something new in her work with “The Kitchen Table Series,” but she couldn’t have anticipated the power her daily performance would have three decades on a series so universal and timeless, yet crucial in amplifying Black perspectives in art.” (Jacqui Palumbo)

“How Carrie Mae Weems Rewrote the Rules of Image-Making”, Megan O’Grady

This article was an in-depth look at Carrie Mae Weems and her work. As well as the meaning and how a lot of her pieces came to be. Many of her pictures are self-portraits even if she’s not featured in the pictures, seeing herself and vision in others. Overall it was very interesting to see how she came to be an influential photographer, and what aspects of her life impacted her as a person and artist.

“The desire to create images has never not felt powerful, something Weems understood from the first time she held her own camera.” (Megan O'Grady )

“He looked at me, and he said, ‘Carrie Mae, always remember that you have a right. Right? That no matter who messes with you, you pick up the biggest stick that you can, and you fight back with it.’ This was a great gift.” (Megan O'Grady )

Source Image

Untitled from the series "Roaming" (2008)

I was inspired by a lot of the pictures from Carrie Mae Weems' "Roaming" series but mostly from the one above. I wanted to capture the sort of isolating feeling from her pictures. Making the picture black and white adds a dramatic and lonely feel and keeps the picture from being too busy with color.