Photography exists as both an artistic object and a document. The first images in my newest series take place in a movie theater.
The images exist between the space what is truth and what is staged. I’m interested in contributing to the archive in a way that reflects and rewrites the possibility of what could have been and affirming what can be/is. Depictions of leisure and pastimes are often monopolized by white bodies; when looking for images of Black people in leisure, many of them are stock photos or are nonexistent.
Movie theaters, symbolic of romance, coming of age, and home to one of America’s favorite pastimes, have had a history of being segregated.
Years after the desegregation of theaters, the only imagery I’ve ever come across of Black people in the movies is Michael Jackson’s Thriller. 40 years have passed and a lack of major imagery of Black people watching a film in a leisurely manner remains.