Carrie Mae Weems: The Image as Conversation

Carrie Mae Weems photographs aren’t just something that looks pleasant to the viewer, rather, they are also something that initiates an active dialogue. Her work is sitting at an intersection of language, image, and lived experience.  Weems is using photography not just as a tool for visual representation, but rather as a platform for exploring identity, history, power, and race. Weems can accomplish this by incorporating text and performance into her photographs.

One of her most iconic pieces, The Kitchen Table Series, is simple, deceptively so. A woman sits at a kitchen table, through different moments she will be laughing at times, reading, arguing, and reflecting at different times. Through this series, we are not just seeing an image unfold, but we are seeing an entire life unfold. It is no longer a portrait of a women, it’s a portrait of her life, which is shown in the setting of the kitchen. It is personal.

Something that strikes me most is how Weems centers the story. She isn’t documenting an external event or looking for a nice scene for its own sake. Instead, she is looking back at the stories that have been hidden for far too long or have gone unspoken, especially stories about Black Life in America. Her image is saying, “We have always been here. We have always had stories.”

As you might know, by now, I am someone who focuses on technical and structural thinking, whether it be in physics or photography. Weems' work reminds me that meaning doesn’t always live in visible mechanics. Instead, it often lives in the spaces between emotion, the cultural weight. For example, a table isn’t just a table. A gaze isn’t just simply an expression, but rather it is a stance.

Personally, Weems' work inspires me to think more deliberately about who is seen, how they are seen, and why. She doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable truths in her photography, but she shows these truths with such care and beauty.

 

In my own photograph endeavors, I want to channel some of Weems’s courage. To not just chase interesting sights, but to ask: what is this image in conversation with? I want to be very deliberate about the stories I photograph.