Posing Beauty in African American Culture

Posing Beauty in African American Culture traces the relationship between African American beauty and visual culture from the 1890s to the present through documentary, commercial, and fine art photography. Documentary photographs and portraits of famous and middle-class people alike present the public face of African American beauty, while commercial photographs demonstrate how fashion and advertising construct beauty standards. Contemporary photographers—some of whom use themselves as subjects—encourage consideration of how images of beauty impact mass culture and individuals.

Organized by Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions and curated by Deborah Willis, Ph.D., one of the nation’s leading historians of African American photography and culture, the exhibition challenges existing notions of beauty while encouraging consideration of race, class, and gender within art and popular culture.

Artists: Ifetayo Abdus-Salam, Henry Clay Anderson, Thomas Askew, Mangue Banzima, Anthony Barboza, Petrushka Bazin, Sheila Pree Bright, Renée Cox, Edward Curtis, Bruce Davidson, Andre De Dienes, Omar Victor Diop, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Lola Flash, Russell Frederick, Leonard Freed, Gerard Gaskin, Todd Gray, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Charles “Teenie” Harris, Lyle Ashton Harris, Dave Heath, LeRoy Henderson, Jessica Ingram, Lauren Kelley, Roshini Kempadoo, Russell Lee, Builder Levy, Philippe Lévy-Stab, Kalup Linzy, Elaine Mayes, Robert H. McNeill, John W. Mosley, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, David “Oggi” Ogburn, Gordon Parks, Ken Ramsay, Richard S. Roberts, Edwin Rosskam, Jeffrey Henson Scales,Robert Sengstacke, Jamel Shabazz, Stephen Shames, Bayeté Ross Smith, Hank Willis Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, Lewis Watts, Carrie Mae Weems, Wendel A. White, Carla Williams, Ernest C. Withers, lauren woods

Curator: Deborah Willis, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University