Image: Dawoud Bey, A Young Man in a Bandana and Swimming Trunks, Rochester, New York, 1989; gelatin silver print; 24 x 19 1/2 in. (60.96 x 49.53 cm); collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Dawoud Bey

Join us for a 3-part lecture series on Thursday evenings in February on African Diaspora Photography with California College of the Arts Professsor Makeda Best

Discussions will introduce audiences to key African American photographers, photographers of the African diaspora, and their work. Though thematically organized, these will be active discussions in which the attendees will be encouraged to discuss and respond to works presented throughout the core lecture presentation. A short bibliography will be available for interested attendees for further reading and exploration.

Students will gain both an understanding of the history of African American photography and photography of the African diaspora, and a general introduction to the history of photography.

WEEK 1 | Portraiture Early in the history of photography, African Americans seized on portraiture as a means of self definition, and as a tool to refute popular stereotypes about African American identity. This lecture will discuss critical issues and themes in African American portraiture beginning with Frederick Douglass’ writing on photographic portraiture and his own numerous self-portraits. It will address how Douglass’ concerns continued to have relevance in new historical contexts.

Lastly, we will explore the role of portraiture in crafting a modern African diasporic identity. Other topics to be discussed self-portraiture by African American soldiers during the Civil War, contemporary portrait projects by Dawoud Bey and LaToya Ruby Frazier, and portraiture by African photographers Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, and Zwelethu Mthethwa.

Makeda Best is a historian of photography and an Assistant Professor of Visual Studies at the California College of the Arts. She earned her PhD from Harvard University; she also studied studio photography at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, where she earned an MFA. She is featured in Oregon Public Radio and Annenberg Learner’s Essential Lens – Analyzing Photographs Across the Curriculum (2015).

Purchase tickets here