About the Work
This photograph by acclaimed photographer Carrie Mae Weems shows a young black man sitting in a pool of stark bright light coming from an overhead lamp and looking at the tape recorder beside him. The text at the bottom of the image reads "Jim, if you choose to accept, the mission is to land on your own two feet." Carrie Mae Weems has always used her art as a vehicle for exploring race, society, and politics. With that in mind, this photograph seems to speak of the challenges presented by life itself: not the covert mission of a spy thriller but the simple challenge of trying to survive and thrive as a black man in contemporary society.
About the Artist
With the pitch and timbre of an accomplished storyteller, Carrie Mae Weems examines issues of race, gender politics, and African-American identity in her photography. First picking up the camera for political rather than artistic purposes, Weems studied at the Studio Museum in Harlem in the 1970s with contemporaries Frank Stewart and Coreen Simpson. Weems uses her personal biography in combination with racist and misogynistic jokes, songs, and rebukes to stake claim to the narrative of an ordinary black woman in America. The recipient of a number of awards, Weems has been a visiting professor at both Harvard University and Wellesley College.
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