Summer/Fall 2012 Download PDF - The Studio Museum in Harlem

Summer/Fall 2012 20HarlemPostcardsSummer 2012Yasmine BraithwaiteExpanding the Walls participant, born 1996Aquinas High School, Bronx, NYZoe CrosherBorn 1975, Santa Rosa, CALives and works in Los Angeles, CASize of the Third World, 2012In Size of the Third World, I was drawn to the mix ofancient times and contemporary Harlem. This imagecaptures chess pieces I found in Harlem that resembleancient Egyptian forms. Something about the hieroglyphicsemphasizes the idea of gratitude to me: I like how thisphotograph shows that art can come in different shapesand sizes, and can reference the past, present and futureall at once.Katy, Kori & Rashid and other backs (Crumpled),for the Studio Museum, 2012For Harlem Postcards, I decided to concentrate on thephysicality of the existing postcard archive. Acknowledgingthe artists who have participated before me,I photographed the crumpled up backs of postcardsto emphasize the ephemeral nature of printed matter.As a Californian, I’ve learned about Harlem primarilythrough what I have seen, read and heard, rather thanexperienced. So I wanted to stay away from a moreconventional approach to documenting a place I knowonly as an imaginary version of itself. Rephotographingthe backs of the previous postcards brings physicalattention to past efforts to capture a photographicsense of Harlem, and it is these instances I want tobring to the forefront—documents of imaginings ofHarlem that have come before me.