Camara Dia Holloway
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Fashion in the year 1853
Originally posted on ArtifexLohn: During the ruling of Queen Victoria (24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) in the year 1853 the French actor Francois-Joseph Talma leaves his mark on the textile industry with the Talma cloak made out of flannel, merino or velvet. Once again crinolines make themselves noticed, but this time they are…
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Fashioning Fashion exhibition in Paris: European style from 1715 to 1900
Originally posted on Ritournelle: One of my favorite museums in Paris, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, is organizing the beautiful exhibition Fashioning Fashion until April 14th. Initiated by the LACMA in Los Angeles, this show presents the evolution of European style from 1715 to 1900 with more than 100 looks. A fascinating travel in the…
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Fashioning Fashion @ Musee Des Arts Decoratifs, Paris
The Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris is hosting a fabulous show educating the french public about the origins of European Fashion from the early 18th century until the present day. For those lucky enough to be in Paris this April, it is definitely worth a visit. Every time I come to Des Arts Decoratifs…
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Lifework: Norman Parkinson’s Century of Style
Originally posted on Edinburgh Fashion Blog | Scottish Fashion Blog | Everything Looks Rosie: Norman Parkinson was one of the greatest and most enduring fashion and portrait photographers of the 20th Century. He was an innovator who changed the face of both genres: eschewing the stiffness of the time, his images capture life, spontaneity and…
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Daughters of the Dust
I recently gave a talk at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts about the film Daughters of the Dust by Julie Dash. It is an amazing film – it is definitely in my Top 10 list of all time favorites. So I thought I would share this recent video about the Gullah who are…
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Family histories and interwar black history
Originally posted on Drawing over the Colour Line: Geographies of art and cosmopolitan politics in London, 1919 – 1939: As our recent blog post shows, our contact with Nyay Bhushan, the great grandson of Vasu Deva Sharma, has been a fantastic opportunity for us to find out about Sharma’s migratory history and learn more about…
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Black Ops
My CAA talk went very well according to the feedback that I received. I focused on how shadows assumed a new expressive role as a racial metaphor in modernist photography. I previously shared some of the images that I was considering. Here are some of the ones that were included in my presentation: A made…
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Shadows take on a life of their own in the jazz age
Anyone trying to study the role of shadow in visual representation will not find much. Victor Stoichita and Michael Baxandall have written books on the topic, plus a few articles exist. That is why I am eagerly anticipating the publication of a new book called The Cinema and Its Shadow by Alice Maurice. Not only…
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In praise of shadows…
It’s CAA time and I am participating in a panel called “Photography and Race.” My talk is about race and modernism in interwar photography. One key phenomenon that I have noted is that lighting and shadow take on a metaphoric role beyond their descriptive function that gives visual expression to the period’s racial imagination in…