Home > Collection > Collection Highlights > Colored People Series

Carrie Mae Weems

American, born 1953

© 1997 Carrie Mae Weems

Colored People Series, 1997

Toned and/or color-stained silver prints with text on mat
30 x 30 inches (76.2 x 76.2 cm) each
Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., by exchange, 2008

Works in this series

 
Blue Black Boy from the "Colored People" series, 1997
Toned and/or color-stained silver print with text on mat, edition AP 1/2

Golden Yella Girl from the "Colored People" series, 1997
Toned and/or color-stained silver print with text on mat, edition 2/5

Magenta Colored Girl from the "Colored People" series, 1997
Toned and/or color-stained silver print with text on mat, edition AP 1/5

Red Bone Boy from the "Colored People" series, 1997
Toned and/or color-stained silver print with text on mat, edition 1/5

Carrie Mae Weems often turns her camera lens on herself and her family, documenting through her own African-American experience.

These works are from the "Colored People Series," in which Weems pokes fun at the "shades of blackness" people assign to themselves and others. By layering monochromatic color in each photograph with words that can have differing meanings and numerous interpretations, Weems creates a visual pun that begs one question: "What does color mean?"

These photographs reminds us that we all see through filters—whether they are cultural, social, learned, taught, or inherited.

Gallery