Carrie Mae Weems
Encyclopedia
Carrie Mae Weems is an award-winning photographer
and artist. Her photographs, films, and videos have been displayed in over 50 exhibitions in the United States and abroad and focus on serious issues that face African Americans
today, such as racism, gender relations, politics, and personal identity. She has said, "Let me say that my primary concern in art, as in politics, is with the status and place of Afro-Americans in our country."
in 1953, the second of seven children to Myrlie and Carrie Weems. After high school she moved to San Francisco to study modern dance. She decided to continue her arts schooling and attended the California Institute of the Arts
, Valencia
. She graduated at the age of twenty-eight with her BA. She received her MFA from the University of California, San Diego
. Weems also participated in the graduate program in folklore at the University of California, Berkeley
.
While in her early twenties, Carrie Mae Weems was politically active in the labor movement as a union organizer. Her first camera was used for politics rather than for artistic purposes. She was inspired to pursue photography only after she came across The Black Photography Annual, a book of images by African-American photographers. This book contained the work of photographers Shawn Walker, Beuford Smith, Anthony Barboza, Ming Smith, Adger Cowans, and Roy DeCarava, which Weems found inspiring. Bey, Dawoud http://bombsite.com/issues/108/articles/3307 “Carrie Mae Weems” BOMB Magazine
Summer 2009. Retrieved August 1, 2011.This led her to New York, and the Studio Museum in Harlem
, where she began to meet a number of artists and other photographers such as Frank Stewart
and Coreen Simpson
, and they began to form a community. In 1976 Weems took a photography class at the Museum taught by Dawoud Bey
. She returned to San Francisco, but lived bi-coastally and was involved with the Studio Museum and a community of photographers in New York.
In her almost thirty year career, Carrie Mae Weems has won numerous awards. She was named Photographer of the Year by the Friends of Photography. In 2005, she was awarded the Distinguished Photographer's Award in recognition of her significant contributions to the world of photography. Her talents have also been recognized by numerous colleges, including Harvard University
and Wellesley College, with fellowships, artist-in-residence and visiting professor positions.
Weems lives in Brooklyn, NY and Syracuse, NY, with her husband Jeffrey Hoone.
She is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery in New York
.
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
and artist. Her photographs, films, and videos have been displayed in over 50 exhibitions in the United States and abroad and focus on serious issues that face African Americans
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
today, such as racism, gender relations, politics, and personal identity. She has said, "Let me say that my primary concern in art, as in politics, is with the status and place of Afro-Americans in our country."
Early Life and Education
Weems was born in Portland, OregonPortland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
in 1953, the second of seven children to Myrlie and Carrie Weems. After high school she moved to San Francisco to study modern dance. She decided to continue her arts schooling and attended the California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
, Valencia
Valencia, California
Valencia is an affluent planned community located in the City of Santa Clarita, California and Los Angeles County, California, U.S. in the northwestern corner of the Santa Clarita Valley, adjacent to Interstate 5. In 1987, it was one of the four unincorporated communities that merged to create the...
. She graduated at the age of twenty-eight with her BA. She received her MFA from the University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
. Weems also participated in the graduate program in folklore at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
While in her early twenties, Carrie Mae Weems was politically active in the labor movement as a union organizer. Her first camera was used for politics rather than for artistic purposes. She was inspired to pursue photography only after she came across The Black Photography Annual, a book of images by African-American photographers. This book contained the work of photographers Shawn Walker, Beuford Smith, Anthony Barboza, Ming Smith, Adger Cowans, and Roy DeCarava, which Weems found inspiring. Bey, Dawoud http://bombsite.com/issues/108/articles/3307 “Carrie Mae Weems” BOMB Magazine
Bomb Magazine
BOMB is a quarterly magazine edited by artists and writers. It is composed, primarily, of interviews between creative people working in a variety of disciplines — visual art, literature, music, film, theater and architecture....
Summer 2009. Retrieved August 1, 2011.This led her to New York, and the Studio Museum in Harlem
Studio Museum in Harlem
The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American contemporary art museum in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, New York. It was founded in 1968 as the first such museum in the U.S. devoted to the art of African-Americans, specializing in 19th and 20th century work as well work of artists of...
, where she began to meet a number of artists and other photographers such as Frank Stewart
Frank Stewart
Francis Eugene "Frank" Stewart , a former Australian politician and rugby league footballer, was a member of the Australian House of Representatives representing Lang between 1953 and 1977 and subsequently Grayndler between 1977 and 1979 for the Australian Labor Party. During his term in...
and Coreen Simpson
Coreen Simpson
Coreen Simpson is a noted African American photographer and jewelry designer, whose work has an African American theme...
, and they began to form a community. In 1976 Weems took a photography class at the Museum taught by Dawoud Bey
Dawoud Bey
Dawoud Bey is an American photographer renowned for his large-scale color portraits of adolescents and other often marginalized subjects....
. She returned to San Francisco, but lived bi-coastally and was involved with the Studio Museum and a community of photographers in New York.
Career and Work
In 1983, Carrie Mae Weems completed her first collection of photographs called, Family Pictures and Stories. The images told the story of her family, and she has said that in this project she was trying to explore the movement of black families out of the South and into the North, using her family as a model for the larger theme. Her next series, called Ain't Jokin, was completed in 1988. It focused on racial jokes and internalized racism. Another series called American Icons, completed in 1989, also focused on racism. Weems has said that throughout the 1980's she was turning away from the documentary photography genre, instead "creating representations that appeared to be documents but were in fact staged" and also "incorporating text, using multiples images, diptychs and triptychs, and constructing narratives." Gender issues were the next focal point for Carrie Mae Weems. It was the topic of one of her most well known collections called The Kitchen Table series. About "Kitchen Table" and "Family Pictures and Stories", Weems has said, "I use my own constructed image as a vehicle for questioning ideas about the role of tradition, the nature of family, monogamy, polygamy, relationships between men and women, between women and their children, and between women and other women—underscoring the critical problems and the possible resolves." She has expressed disbelief and concern about the exclusion of images of the black community, particularly black women, from the popular media, and aims to represent these excluded subjects and speak to their experience through her work. Weems has also reflected on the themes and inspirations of her work as a whole, saying,"...from the very beginning, I’ve been interested in the idea of power and the consequences of power; relationships are made and articulated through power. Another thing that’s interesting about the early work is that even though I’ve been engaged in the idea of autobiography, other ideas have been more important: the role of narrative, the social levels of humor, the deconstruction of documentary, the construction of history, the use of text, storytelling, performance, and the role of memory have all been more central to my thinking than autobiography."
In her almost thirty year career, Carrie Mae Weems has won numerous awards. She was named Photographer of the Year by the Friends of Photography. In 2005, she was awarded the Distinguished Photographer's Award in recognition of her significant contributions to the world of photography. Her talents have also been recognized by numerous colleges, including Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and Wellesley College, with fellowships, artist-in-residence and visiting professor positions.
Weems lives in Brooklyn, NY and Syracuse, NY, with her husband Jeffrey Hoone.
She is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.