Posts Tagged ‘James VanDerZee’
Not Your Average Dentist
Kenneth Montague doesn’t fit the script. He doesn’t fit the script of a black man raised by middle class Jamaican parents in Windsor, Canada, going on to become a successful dentist. And he certainly doesn’t fit the script of a boring dentist, since he moonlights as a contemporary art collector, specializing in African American photographs. Heck, his collection doesn’t even fit the script of contemporary African American art.
Every portrait tells a story
What I have found especially extraordinary about “Becoming” is that it truly illustrates a narrative investigating the ways in which black identity has been shaped by photographic portraits over the course of the last century. Each piece, each portrait, examines the relationship between subject and photographer, the connection between people and their communities, black cultural identity, and the ever-pressing question we repeatedly ask ourselves, “Who am I?”