I just came across - by chance really - the work of Carrie Mae Weem. And wow I am a little speechless.
The series 'From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried' (1995-1996)
http://carriemaeweems.net/galleries/from-here.html
I think this is really relevant to where I am in terms of research at the moment. I have been looking into slaves alot as a follow on from reading the 'Roots' book.
Weem joins imagery and text in a way that is really moving I feel. The red tone over the images, makes it more difficult to see the person in the photograph. The thing i have noticed about slaves from my research is that they are not respected, they are not seen as important and so not being able to see the faces clearly in the images really pulls this out and makes it obvious.
Also, the text over the top is readable but it is not bold. It doesn't stand out as much as it could do, again i think that this works really well. You have to look closely and kind of concentrate to read what it says. Placement of the text is important too, and in none of the images the text is over the face. I feel that this gives an air of respect back to the people in the photographs. It is also a little .. haunting? You can see these people, you can read a statement about them, and all the time they are looking directly out of the image and almost make you fell guilty for looking. Well.. they make me feel guilty !
I feel a real sense of 'the other' through doing this work. I am beginning to be overly aware of the fact that my skin is white and in some cases.. when looking at gripping imagery such as this.. I feel a sort of guilt fall on me as if I should be sorry for what has happened to these people.
I wasn't even alive at the times of some of these things, yet because of the colour of my skin I feel ashamed.
The thing that really is sinking in though... is that in some places the colour of skin really is still determining how you are treated. How awful ! To in some cases fear your own life.... because of the colour of skin you have been born with !
