“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare,’ writer and activist Audre Lorde famously said. It’s a subject of vital concern to artist Katherine Simóne Reynolds, who began the photography series Ask Her How She’s Doing in 2015 while undergoing a major transitional period in her life.
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Reynolds began approaching Black women in St. Louis neighbourhoods to ask: “How are you actually doing today?” This simple yet profound act of care opened a shared space for vulnerability. With this work, Reynolds attempts to dismantle the myth of the Black superwoman: a stereotypically strong, stoic figure who denies her needs, desires and wellbeing in order to bear the burdens of everyone else in her life.
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“Black women wellness is something I take very seriously,” says Reynolds. “It has not been a temporal performative fix through one sole project, but something that is imperative to survival.”
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