In order to survive in America, Black culture has made itself illegible from the prying eyes of the white gaze, using art as a tool of subversion and self-expression. Since emancipation, Black Art has been a force of resistance, independence, and innovation, catapulting Black American culture to global heights in music, style, speech, and dance.
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Often imitated but never duplicated, Black Art is the foundation of popular culture, as well as a vital force in fine art now as the art world races to align itself with the right side of history after active exclusion from museums, galleries, books, and mainstream media. Black Art is currently having a moment, not only for this reason but because it offers a panoply of perspectives and paradigms operating outside the boundaries of Western cultural hegemony.
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Consider the subject of Black male desire and the ways in which it has been laden with the stain of racism and homophobia for centuries, forcing the expression of fundamental human drives into secrecy. Photography, by virtue of its ability to render visible that which we may not have seen, can become a tool of liberation and freedom when placed in the proper hands.
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