Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation

Black motherhood through Black woman photographic art

Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing questions how the Black female body, specifically the Black maternal body, navigates interlocking structures that place a false narrative on her body and that of her maternal ancestors. This volume, which includes a curated selection of images, addresses the complicated relationship between Blackness and photography and, in particular, its gendered dimension, its relationship to health, sexuality, and digital culture – primarily in the context of racialized heteronormativity.

With over forty contributors, this volume draws on scholarly inquiry ranging from academic essays, interviews, poetry, to documentary practice, and on contemporary art. Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing thus offers a cross-section of analysis on the topic of Black motherhood, mothering, and the participation of photography in the process.

This collection challenges racist images and discourses, both historically and in its persistence in contemporary society, while reclaiming the innate brilliance of Black women through personal narratives, political acts, connections to place, moments of pleasure, and communal celebration. It serves as a reflection of the past, a portal to the future, and contributes to recent scholarship on the complexities of Black life and Black joy.

Foreword by Salamishah Tillet and Scheherazade Tillet.

Afterword by Régine Michelle Jean-Charles (Northeastern University)

Contributing authors: Tomi Akitunde (founder and editor-in-chief of mater mea), Grace Aneiza Ali (Florida State University), Emily Brady (University of Nottingham), Lesly Deschler Canossi (Women Picturing Revolution), Nicole J. Caruth (independent curator), Haile Eshe Cole (University of Connecticut), Atalie Gerhard (Saarland University), Kellie Carter Jackson (Wellesley College), Régine Michelle Jean-Charles (Northeastern University), Rachel Lobo (York University), Zoraida Lopez-Diago (Women Picturing Revolution), Salamishah Tillet (Rutgers University), Scheherazade Tillet (A Long Walk Home), Brie McLemore (University of California, Berkeley), Renée Mussai (Autograph London), Marly Pierre-Louis (independent curator), Jonathan Michael Square (Parsons School of Design), Susan Thompson (independent curator), Jennifer Turner (Hollins University), Sasha Turner (Johns Hopkins University), Rhaisa Kameela Williams (Princeton University)

Contributing artists: Nydia Blas, Samantha Box, Sheila Pree Bright, Renee Cox, Andrea Chung, Nona Faustine, Adama Delphine Fawundu, vanessa german , Ayana V. Jackson, Lebohang Kganye, Deana Lawson, Qiana Mestrich, Marcia Michael, Zanele Muholi, Wangechi Mutu, Keisha Scarville, Mickalene Thomas, Mary Sibande, Carrie Mae Weems, Deborah Willis

This book emerges from the project Women Picturing Revolution.
For more information, visit www.womenpicturingrevolution.com

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer Review Content).

Listen to an interview with Lesly Deschler Canossi and Zoraida Lopez-Diago at New Books Network: https://newbooksnetwork.com/black-matrilineage-photography-and-representation

Acknowledgements
Our Mother, My Muse Salamishah Tillet and Scheherazade Tillet
Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing Lesly Deschler Canossi and Zoraida Lopez-Diago

PART ONEMORE BLACK AND MORE BEAUTIFUL: SOCIAL MEDIA & DIGITAL CULTURE IN THE REWRITING OF SELF
1 Regarding the Pain of Our Own: Jazmine Headley, Portraiture, and the Sorrow of Black Motherhood Brie McLemore 2 Beyond “Welfare Queens” and “Baby Mamas”: Low-Income Black Single Mothers’ Resistance to Controlling Images Jennifer L. Turner 3 Black Motherhood Online: A Reimagined Representation: A Conversation with Tomi Akitunde Kellie Carter Jackson 4 Thotty Mommies: The Erotic Potential of Black Mothers Online Marly Pierre-Louis
PART TWO“TURNING THE FACE OF HISTORY TO YOUR FACE”: SEEING THE REAL SELF THROUGH REPRESENTATIONS OF BLACK MOTHERHOOD
5 Motherhood in the work of Deana Lawson – A conversation with the Artist Susan Thompson 6 Photographic Afterimages: Nationalism, Care Work and Black Motherhood in Canada Rachel Lobo 7. “I Like to Make Pictures of Children”: African American Women Photographers and Wielding the Weapon of ‘Motherhood’ Emily Brady 8 Losses Not to Be Passed On: Paula C. Johnson’s and Sara Bennett’s Portraits Rewriting (Ex-) Incarcerated Black Mothers Atalie Gerhard 9 Speaking of “unspeakable things unspoken” Sasha Turner
PART THREE“YOU ARE YOUR BEST THING”: SELF-CARE AS A SITE OF RESISTANCE

10 Black Birth Matters – A Conversation with Andrea Chung and D’Yuanna Allen-Robb Nicole J. Caruth 11 Worth a Thousand Words: Visualizing Black Motherhood and Health Haile Eshe Cole 12 Three Black Mothers in a Cleveland Cabaret Rhaisa Williams
PART FOUR“IN SEARCH OF MY MOTHER’S GARDEN, I FOUND MY OWN”: BLACK FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE MATRILINEAL SPACE
13 Letter IV: Where Are They? – M/othering R/evolutions Renée Mussai 14 Every Day is Mother’s Day in My Book: Black Motherhood in the Work of Nona Faustine Simmons Jonathan Michael Square 15 The Motherland Between Us Grace Aneiza Ali 16 The Impossibility of Breathing When the Sun Covers Your Face Marcia MichaelPART FIVE“THE ASSERTION OF THE LIFEFORCE”: A SELECTION OF WORKS CURATED BY WOMEN PICTURING REVOLUTION
Afterword. Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing Régine Michelle Jean-Charles
Contributors Artists Colophon

Lesly Deschler Canossi

Lesly Deschler Canossi is a photography educator, cultural producer and co-founder of Women Picturing Revolution. She is faculty at the International Center of Photography, New York.

Zoraida Lopez-Diago

Zoraida Lopez-Diago stands at the intersection of visual, social, and environmental justice; she is a photographer, independent curator, activist, and co-founder of Women Picturing Revolution.