The UCSB Center for Black Studies Research, UC Consortium for Black Studies in California, and the Department of Black Studies present
The 2018 Clyde Woods Memorial Lecture
Critical Narratives in Visualizing the Black Body in Photography and Popular Culture
Deborah Willis
Artist, Photographer, Professor, Chair
Department of Photography and Imaging
Tisch School of the Arts | New York University
Tuesday, March 13th, 2018
7:00pm-8:30pm
UCSB | Student Resource Building, Multipurpose Room
Through photography, images of the Black subject- whether artistic, documentary, or anthropological- have become forever fixed in the popular imagination. From the medium’s beginning, race and gender have shaped the reception of photographic portraits, both politically and aesthetically. How best to read, rethink, and present these images today?
This lecture will mediate between the objectification of the Black body and the (re)presentation of the Black body through a discussion of photographs from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as well as the present. Dr. Willis will also explore the ways in which our contemporary understanding of photography, history, and culture is constructed and informed by public displays in museums, text, and the global landscape.
