Self Image 

My self image is inspired by the image, After Manet  (2002). I was very inspired by the photograph and the meaning behind it. The image was a recreation of Carrie Mea Weems own interpretation of the 1863 painting Olympia- Edouard. In the original painting the main focus point is of a white, naked, petite woman who is  laid across a bed comforted by pillows and a bouquet of flowers. The background of the painting portraits a young black woman on the dark deemed side of the room holding the bouquet of flowers as she drifts away with the darken background of the room. Carrie Mae Weems states that even though she adores these phenomenal artist she is unable to rely on them in properly depicting and bringing forward the representation of women of color in there work. She goes on to say “so I exist outside there fantasy. I am not apart of that. And so I have to make my own, I have to make my own way and build the kinds of images that I think need to be built in relationship to some of the greatest artist I know, even though I am not a great artist. But I think that I have to wrestle with them, nonetheless, that I have to wrestle with these ideas and build images that don’t exist in any other way or have not been made by anybody else. That I am responsible in other words for my own construction, for my own making, for my own cultural production. I can’t rely on these artist as much as I love these artist, and they have disappointed me greatly.  As much as I love them, I revere them also I am very disappointed in their engagements of the historical body of self, of the black self, of the black body, of the black imagination.” In recreating the painting to a photograph in  her own interpretation of the piece she brings forth the black culture and the actual beauty of colored women and has made them the focus point while still incorporating the floral bouquet and pose from the painting. In the image rather than comforted by pillows the young girl is comforted by her beautiful sisters which truly portrays the beauty, togetherness, and culture of colored women.

Susan Sontag excerpt from On Photography

Quotes:

“To collect photographs is to collect the world. Movies and television programs light up walls, flicker, and go out; but with still photographs the image is also an object, lightweight, cheap to produce, easy to carry about, accumulate, store.”

“two sluggish lumpen-peasants are lured into joining the King's Army by the promise that they will be able to loot, rape, kill, or do whatever else they please to the enemy, and get rich. But the suitcase of booty that Michel-Ange and Ulysse triumphantly bring home, years later, to their wives turns out to contain only picture postcards, hundreds of them, of Monuments, Department Stores, Mammals, Wonders of Nature, Methods of Transport, Works of Art, and other classified treasures from around the globe. Godard's gag vividly parodies the equivocal magic of the photographic image., Photographs are perhaps the most mysterious of all the objects that make up, and thicken, the environment we recognize as modern. Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood.”

Response: I found the reading to be truly insightful on how important photographs truly are since the late 1830’s. The concept of photos goes beyond its name, photography enhances our experiences and the moment we dear. They allow us to capture things like moments ,historical events, as well as monumental milestones.

Quotes

“Weems’s black-and-white photographs are like mirrors, each reflecting a collective experience: how selfhood shifts through 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.”

“I knew that I was making images unlike anything I had seen before, but I didn’t know what that would mean,” she told W. “I knew what it meant for me, but I didn’t know what it would mean historically.”

Response 

By creating experience and being able to relate to others through her work Carrie Weems not only created new content unseen but a new look on Photography that also captivated and inspired others.