A hairstyle by Winifred Hall Allen
A hairstyle by Winifred Hall Allen

Femmetography: The Gaze Shifted is organized by the Schomburg Center’s Teen Curators, an art history and curatorial program for high school students. This year, our Teen Curators drew inspiration from Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe’s 1986 opus, Viewfinders: Black Women Photographers, the first book to document black women photographers. With this book as a  guide, our young curators investigated the power of the black feminine gaze.

In Viewfinders, photographer and researcher Moutoussamy-Ashe collaborated with scholar and curator Deborah Willis to unravel the rich herstories of 33 pioneering photographers from 1839 to 1985. The authors’ thorough scholarship created a space for these narratives to be rediscovered and reimagined by subsequent generations. Described as an historical survey, Viewfinders not only looks at black life and subjectivity, but shifts the gaze to the lives of black women often never depicted behind the camera. Nearly 33 years after it was originally published, our Teen Curators critically engaged with Viewfinders to bring forth their own recreations.

The title, Femmetography continues the work of Viewfinders by engaging with photography from the perspective of the Black woman. Our Teen Curators explored the power of photography by creating portraiture, still life, and experimental photography alongside reproductions of archival materials from the Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe Research Collection located here at the Schomburg Center. By combining these images, a new generation of curators ask: What does the black feminine gaze mean today? 

Curated by the Schomburg Teen Curators 2018-2019 cohort.

 

Online Exhibition Gallery

Press

Acknowledgements

Curators: Schomburg Teen Curators Class of 2019

Abena Manuh, Alexus Younge, Arianna Denise Springer, Aryeh Kalb, Britney Marulaz,  Carina Mesa, Christopher Wood, Isanah Strickland, Javette Warner, Kevin Deleon, Kylie  Vargas, Liza Cuesta, Moctar Thiam, Mordecai Kodua, Olivia Avery Gilliam, Ruby Furlow,  Trécii P. Cheeseboro, Zarina Lewin, Zora Michelle Danticat & Zora Hemmings 

Education Coordinator/Instructor: Zenzele Johnson 

Lead Instructor/Artist: M. Scott Johnson

Exhibitions Coordinator: Shante´ Cozier 

Graphic Designer: Isissa Komada-John 

Program Assistant/Researcher: Catherine Feliz  

Art Handlers: Eric Doeringer, Todd Kelly & Aviram Cohen 

 

SPECIAL THANKS 

Schomburg Center Director: Kevin Young 

Associate Director of Education: Brian Jones 

Director of Collections and Information Services: Mary Yearwood Associate Director of Public Programs and Exhibitions: Novella Ford Art and Artifacts Division, Associate Curator: Tammi Lawson 

Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division: Cheryl Beredo, Barrye Brown

Photographs and Prints Division: Michael Mery, Antony Toussaint, Megan Williams

Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division: Maira Liriano,  A.J. Muhammad 

Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division: Shola Lynch,  Andrea Battleground 

The Schomburg Shop: Rio Cortez, Virginia Mixon  

Chief of Staff: Kevin Matthews 

Schomburg’s Security and Facilities Staff

Jeanne Moutoussamy- Ashe, Collection Donor 

Deborah Willis, New York University 

Hasna Muhammad, Photographer 

MFON Photographers: Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Adama Delphine Fawundu,  Nydia Blas, Manyatsa Monyamane  

Catherine Mckinley, Curator & Collector 

Esther Adler, Associate Curator, Museum of Modern Art 

Denise Murell, Curator, Wallach Gallery 

Elizabeth Schrittwieser, Central Park East High School  

Joel Lowy, New York City Museum School | Carey Ma, Frederick Douglas Academy | Thurgood Marshall Academy | City As School

 

The Schomburg Teen Curators Program is generously funded by The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation