#deborah willis

[fyeahfitwomen]

[standingatthefence]

Deborah Willis | Carrie Mae Weems at Euro Salon, Etonville, 2009-10

[padawan-historian]

“I would argue that black photographers and their subjects believed that defining their own identity was a significant step in the fight against negative representations. Photography played a role in shaping people’s ideas about identity and sense of self; it informed African American social consciousness and motivated black people by offering an “other” view of the black subject. In a sense, photography was used as what I call ‘subversive resistance.’”

~ Deborah Willis, A Small Nation of People: W. E. B. Du Bois and African American Portraits of Progress

[coochiequeens]

In One Art Exhibition, Women Are 'Taking Space' They've Long Deserved

Works by female artists are center stage at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in an exhibition called Taking Space: Contemporary Wom

She was 22. One of three women in a class of 24. Her professor at the Philadelphia College of Art told her she was "taking up a good man's space" in his class. All she'd do when school was over was get pregnant and raise her child. "Meanwhile," said the professor, "a good man could have been in that space."

Some lesson! It haunted her. "He wanted to stop my future," Deborah Willis says. "To shut me down as a woman and a creative person." She found better teachers, graduated, yes, got pregnant. And started taking pictures of her pregnant self. In 1976, a year after graduation, her son was born. Raising him, shooting photos, she got a MacArthur grant, a professorship, all kinds of awards, and became the "dean of Black photography in America." Her son Hank Willis Thomas discovered these old photos and said, "Oh Ma, you've got to make work about this!"

And she did. As did, and do, thousands of women all over the world who carve out time in which to create art. Until fairly recently, their art rarely made it into hallowed museums. But this seems The Time of Women. #MeToo, 19th Amendment centennials, Kamala Harris. Women running states, countries, corporations, museums.

The Director and all the curators at PAFA, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, are female. And the title of their current exhibition "Taking Space: Contemporary Women Artists and the Politics of Scale" was inspired by Deborah Willis' lithograph.

Motherhood is one exhibition theme, a major role of women taken seriously in fine art (makes me wonder how many men have put nude preggers in their art). Alice Neel's painting Claudia Bach Pregnant is a gorgeous stare-right-at-you display of ownership and promise.

PAFA curator Jodi Throckmorton says with these pieces by Neel and Willis "are not only taking space in the galleries they're making space in their bodies to take on the incredibly powerful work of making human beings."

I'm a huge fan of Alice Neel's. (A big retrospective of her work opens March 22 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.) Neel was fearless. When she was 80 she made this astonishing self-portrait (please do click on the link – you won't be sorry.) It's not in the PAFA show, which only includes works from their permanent collection, but I had to mention it. See what I mean by fearless!?

"Taking Space" shows sculptures, posters, ceramics. But it's women making art of women that captures my eye. Especially how we show ourselves on canvas. Occupying space. Unapologetically.....See rest of article and for pictures of art created by women.

Ladies take up space and create art. If any ladies have art or crafts they want to share reblog with a picture.

[wanderingandactingout]

Deborah Willis, from the series Hip Hop South Beach

[adesireforhealing]

Deborah Willis, from Framing Beauty

[aampmuseum]

MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora Friday, March 16th, 2018 @ 6:30 p.m. $5 Advance | $8 Door | Free for AAMP/PPAC Members and Students

On Friday, March 16, join the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) and the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (PPAC) as we host a special conversation, book signing and reception to celebrate the launch of MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora.

MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora is an exclusive and commemorative publication committed to establishing and representing a collective voice of women photographers of African descent. The inaugural issue of MFON features over 100 women photographers across the Diaspora. This iconic issue includes an introduction by Dr. Deborah Willis, MacArthur Fellow and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. It also features essays written by women scholars, journalists and artists. Subsequent issues of MFON will feature photographic essays of four or five photographers with in depth interviews and essays that will contextualize the works.

MFON is founded by award winning documentary photographer, Laylah Amatullah Barrayn and critically acclaimed, award winning visual artist, Adama Delphine Fawundu with the goal of creating awareness of the impact that women photographers of African descent have in the world.

This March 16th event will include a panel discussion featuring MFON founders Laylah Amatullah Barrayn and Adama Delphine Fawundu alongside MacArthur Genius award-winning scholar and photographer, Deborah Willis, PhD. The conversation will be moderated by PPAC board member, Dr. Anna Arabindan-Kesson of Princeton University.

Doors open at 6 pm so guest may view AAMP’s special exhibition Went Looking for Beauty: Refashioning Self which includes more than 30 stunning photographs by Deborah Willis, PhD. Copies of MFON will be on sale this evening.

Doors 6 pm | Conversation 6:30 pm | Book signing and reception to follow discussion. Reserve tickets here. 

[pushbuttonkitty]

'Reflections in Black' celebrates history of Black photography with expanded issue

"Where are the Black photographers?" Deborah Willis on how she turned that question into an artistic mission.