Artist Share: Carrie Mae Weems

Carrie Mae Weems is an African American photographer who tells stories in her work. Weems was born Portland, Oregon, and now resides in Upstate New York where she teaches at Syracuse University.

Carrie Mae Weems began her interest in the arts and photography in 1973 and attended San Francisco City College where she studied photography and design. She received her BFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1981. Later that year, she began her gradate studies at University of California, San Diego, and completes her MFA in 1984. Weems has had work shown nationwide in numerous exhibitions including MOMA.

In Weems’s biography, she stated, “Storytelling is fundamental to my work, a way to best express the human condition that has been a focus of my art…” This is a common theme throughout most of her work. What attracted me to Weems is how her work investigates what it is like to not only be an African American in this country, but how it is to be a middle class mother and wife as well. Her “The Kitchen Table Series, 1990” has to be my favorite out of all her work so far. This body of work tells a very clear story of a woman’s life in front of something so simple as a kitchen table. The composition is nothing but her, the table, the bright light above the table, and the space that surrounds it all. The wall sometimes indicates the time period or stage she is in her life. Friends, family, and love are included in this story. 

http://carriemaeweems.net/

 (image is from The Kitchen Table Series)