Frances Martinez, Freely Distressed, 2024
Carrie Mae Weems, Kitchen Table Series,1990
This photograph from Carrie Mae Weems really stood out to me. To me, the position she puts herself in on the table makes a statement about this longing of wanting to be free, trying to free yourself, but still feeling trapped and uncomfortable. I was inspired by the way this photograph was taken and tried to recreate it with my own interpretation.
Susan Sontag on Photography
Quote:" Photographs, which fiddle with the scale of the world, themselves get reduced, blown up, cropped, retouched, doctored, tricked out"
Response: Photographs have been able to be edited for a long time. Photographs have been edited to be enhanced, to look better, to fix lighting or quality, but nowadays, there are different ways photographs can be edited. With today's technology, a photograph can be completely changed as opposed to the original, objects can even be erased or removed, and is sometimes difficult to know what is actually real and what is not.
Quote: "What is written about a person or an event is frankly an interpretation, as are handmade visual statements, like paintings and drawings. Photographed images do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality that anyone can make or acquire."
Response: Photographs show us little moments that we all live. It is different when you read or draw something. Like said in the quote, it is an interpretation. Although we can interpret a photograph in some cases, a photograph is usually confirmation that a moment happened, staying still in time. I have photographs from my childhood and this is something that can be kept. Also, you can tell when a photograph is older based on the quality of the photo, which is a beautiful thing.
Revisiting Carrie Mae Weems’s Landmark “Kitchen Table Series”
Quote: "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."
Response: As an artist, I understand wanting to create something with meaning and impact. When creating, I sometimes don't realize the impact my work has through the lens of someone else. This is what Carrie Mae Weems did on such a larger scale. Weems had and continues to have such a strong impact because of the rawness she shows in her series. Weems created a powerful series that will continue to resonate within the art culture and the world.
Quote: 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.”
Response: The universal impact is what makes Weems series so powerful. Being able to bring your culture into artwork is one thing, but being able to still create relatability within your work while still being true to your roots and lifestyle is something that resonates with me. The beauty of art is that everyone can take something different from it.
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