— Unbelievable, amazing, surprising, she exclaims on the phone from Syracuse, New York, after receiving the award announcement.
But when Carrie Mae Weems sums up her reactions, it’s still not without edge. The fact that she will be the first African-American woman to receive the Hasselblad prize as late as 2023 is “quite embarrassing”, she says, while at the same time emphasizing that the prize will now become more interesting for many more people.
— It gives the Hasselblad prize a new meaning that it didn’t have before, it will get much more attention especially during this time in the USA. It gives more people the opportunity to get the prize after me.
She herself had not had a thought that she would be able to get it. Now she is extra happy that in addition to the prize money – this year two million kroner – she will also receive a digital Hasselblad camera.
— It will make life so much easier. Although I still prefer working with film, it’s hard to find someone who develops film these days.
“Untitled (Eating lobster)” from the series “The kitchen table” from 1990. Press image.
Carrie Mae Weems often works politically in her exploration of racism and the African-American experience. During the pandemic, she made public works that showed how disproportionately hard covid hit black and indigenous people. Two of her short films deal with police brutality against African Americans.
Bigger than that
At first glance, the black woman may seem to be the focus of her images, but her artistic project is far greater than that.
— What I hoped to do is to create art with a black subject that can encompass the entire scope of humanity. We assume that the black subject can only represent itself, nothing more than itself. My endeavor has been to portray a complicated humanity of black people, to have it normalized instead of made into “the other”. Throughout history, black people have been systematically made “the others” and I think that is deeply problematic.
In a kitchen
She sees the work “Kitchen table series” as an example of her success. The pictures from 1990 are a story about a black woman’s life that takes place in a kitchen. With herself as the model, Carrie Mae stages Weem’s family life and relationships.
— The kitchen and the kitchen table are a place that we can all relate to – whoever we are. The series is not only a starting point for my work, it is a crystallization of the intention itself. It appears to be a documentary, but is a deeply conceptually constructed work.
“Woman in white” from the series “Sea islands” where Carrie Mae Weems examines the painful history of slavery. Press photo.
While embracing all humanity, it was important to give the lead role to a black woman, she explains:
— “Kitchen tables” was created during a time of many struggles in the United States, there were a number of issues that came from feminism and often there was very little discussion of black women’s activities.
Racist stereotypes
She usually works with her own images but sometimes also with archival images, as in the series “From here I saw what happened and I cried” (1995–96), also a key work. In the installation, she shows how photographs have played a decisive role in creating racist stereotypes and social injustice.
Here she uses images she has found in museums depicting slaves in the American South, particularly images commissioned by the Swiss Louis Agasiz, who sought racial biological support for his theories such as the inferiority of blacks.
— It is about an excavation of the history of photography, about how the black subject has been used in American photography. It has a lot to do with the great American photographers of the 20th century, she says with an ironic laugh.
— For me too, it’s a fascinating project that I continue to learn from.
“Queen B (Mary J Blige)” is a photo taken in 2018-2019.
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