Afrochic
-
Egyptomania…encore!
I didn’t have the chance to discuss this photograph of Anna May Wong wearing a hat referencing the one worn by Neferetiti in her famous portrait bust in my recent talk about Egyptomania and fashion — and I don’t even know why Wong was photographed wearing it — but it’s such a great image so…
-
An Evening With Edward Kennedy Ellington
Black sartorial splendor! I will be chronicling how blackness influenced style in my book. Wish me luck finishing it this summer.
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Happy New Year!
This is a portrait of the actress Anna May Wong in tuxedo drag taken by Carl Van Vecthen in 1932. This image is the cornerstone of the introduction to Afrochic, the magnum opus that I hope to complete soon. I argue that this type of photographic portrait and its attendant racial dynamics is emblematic of…
-
Postcards and Bloomsbury black history walking tour leaflets
Originally posted on Drawing over the Colour Line: Geographies of art and cosmopolitan politics in London, 1919 – 1939: We’ve recently created the first of a series of postcards and maps highlighting some of the artwork and histories which touch upon the themes of Drawing over the Colour Line. The postcard created is a reproduction…
-
Musings on Mr. Bojangles
In honor of Mr. Davis’s birthday, I present this comparison that I have been pondering since I stumbled across this image of Davis (top) on the web. Mr. Davis performing Mr. Bojangles here is an intriguing counterpoint to my discussion of Fred Astaire’s “Bojangles in Harlem” number in Swing Time (1936). [Props to Elizabeth Abel’s…
-
EXH: I Have Seen the Future: Norman Bel Geddes Designs America
An exhibition that I wish I could see: I Have Seen the Future: Norman Bel Geddes Designs America. Bel Geddes designs were very influential on the style of Jazz Age. A little known aspect of his career: the 1922 design of the interior of Palais Royal Cabaret where Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra performed. George…
CAMARA DIA HOLLOWAY 