As she was a definitive part of the photo department canon, I have been into Carrie Mae Weems’ work since my days at Hampshire College.  When I read her quote from the New Yorker about having the first show at the Guggenheim:  “I’m the first African-American woman to have a retrospective at the Guggenheim. Not to sound pretentious, but I should be having a show there. By now, it should be a moot point for a black artist—but it’s not.” – I knew I had to put her on our list of shows to see.
It was amazing to see the Kitchen Table Series in its entirety. One image at a time cannot compare with the narrative in it’s whole. In grad school, even I tried my hand at figuring out how to photograph two people, semi-successfully,  negotiating the domestic space.  With a 2 1/4 no less!  It was certainly not as successful as this.

Click this link to read more about Weems.

This post is accompanied by a photo that I took with the ubiquitous iphone from outside the building.