Black Girl Joy

 


Black girl joy- 20 photos of black women at Lawrence university smiling 

When creating this, I wanted the pictures to tell an obvious story. After class, I kept thinking of how the artist was there in the world just capturing the world the way it was. Originally, I wanted to capture small moments of black women laughing in motion, but I ended up falling into the moment myself. However, I was still stuck on how a smile could tell a story. There is a trope that black people do not smile in photos because there was nothing to be happy about. This sweep of photos was to change that narrative. I wanted to capture an award-winning smile of black women, because amongst ourselves we always find a reason to be happy. I simply went up to random black women asked if I could take a picture of them for my project. 

“The environment as a processor of information is propaganda. Propaganda ends where dialogue begins. You must talk to the media, not to the pro-grammar. To talk to the programmer is like complaining to a hot dog vendor at a ballpark about how badly your favorite team is playing.” (McLuhan, 76) 

 

McLuhan is putting perspective in perspective. He is explaining how who see what mean it comes to media changes. You need to process information yourself before you take someone else’s thoughts in. That’s where the idea of the smile comes in. It’s such a simple gesture but taking it in can mean so much more. 

 

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