Anna May Wong
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“Breaking Free? Anna May Wong in London” at ACRAH/CAA2023
Anna May Wong in Chu Chin Chow (1934) I will be presenting “Breaking Free? Anna May Wong in London” at the Association for Critical Race Art History (ACRAH) session at the 2023 College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference. The talk is part of a session titled, “Harlem-on-Thames: NY/LON, 1919-1939.” The panel explores the global impact…
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Anna May Wong and Cross-Racial Masquerade
The Chinese-American star, Anna May Wong, regularly appeared in films in roles that were non-Asian but always racialized. I am currently obsessed with how often imagery linked her with blackness, as in this Paramount Studio photograph by Eugene Robert Richee:
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Desperately Seeking Photographer
I have been unable to identify the photographer of the following portrait of Anna May Wong. It was likely taken in 1934 when Wong was starring in a film tltled Chu Chin Chow, aka Ali Baba Nights. If anyone knows, please let me know using the comment field or email me at camara.holloway@icloud.com
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Ready for My Close Up: Anna May Wong
The heroine of the introduction to my book Afrochic: Anna May Wong.
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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…
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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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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…
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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…
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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…
CAMARA DIA HOLLOWAY 