‘My White Friends:’ Black Photographer Does a Photo Exhibit From The Other Side

May 22nd, 2012 - By Brande Victorian

Source: NY Times

There’s nothing particularly striking about seeing ordinary photos of a bunch of white people. It’s something we see all the time, frankly, but when those pictures are a part of a 50-portrait exhibit created by a black photographer, it tells you there’s something more to it.

Those are just the basics of New Yorker Myra Greene’s new project, “My White Friends.” In an interview with the New York Times, the photographer explained that with these photos she’s attempting to force people—particularly white people— to see more than just that in the images.

“I’m always thinking about race,” she said. “I recognize it when I’m the only black person in a room. My white friends will notice I’m the only black person, too. But they don’t notice a room full of white people.”

She’s hoping that they’ll notice now because Myra didn’t just take photos of her friends, the entire process opened up a dialogue on whiteness and class, gender, ethnicity, and even religion between her and her subjects.

“It was the first time many people had been asked to do something for their racial identity, even though I’m asked all the time,” she said. “Do they ever recognize they are the norm?”

That’s an incredible question to ask and an answer that’s been pretty clear to Myra since she debuted her post-Katrina exhibit, “Character Recognition,” which featured a series of black-glass ambrotypes, made up of glistening close-ups of her facial features. She had been disturbed by how black residents were left to fend for themselves during the storm and wanted to explore how do people look at blacks and recognize their character. One of her white friends admitted that the exhibit challenged him.

“He told me ‘It’s a weird thing as a white guy not knowing how to think about this stuff. Am I fetishizing it?’”

“I asked him if he thought about whiteness, and he said no. That’s when I decided to do a project on photography and whiteness.”

Myra is now hoping to turn the portraits into a book to keep the discussion going, especially since she’s often not able to show all 50 portraits at one time.

“My fear is that people will only see them as portraits and not as this bigger conversation because people won’t want to look at the whiteness. It’s not until you hear the title ‘My White Friends’ that the conversation begins.”

Take a look at more photos from Myra’s exhibit here. What do you think about this idea?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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  • TheRealTPayne

    The artist took photographs of people she personally knows, and the focus was only from HER perspective. Perhaps she does not know any tattoo artists, mechanics, and such, to photograph, and hence, those people APPEAR to be missing, as someone suggested. I personally know the man on the left, wearing the tie. He is a public school teacher. It appears that Myra Greene has taken snapshots of the lives of HER peers and friends and we may be trying to force something that is just not “there” in the photographs: diversity among white people.

    Playing devil’s advocate, how can any of us assume that there is no diversity among Ms. Greene’s white subjects? Aren’t we (those who are Black) making assumptions just as assumptions have been made about US?

  • Barryavann

    I think it interesting how black racists can blame ordinary people for their negative self-concept.  If she, the photographer, has a problem with white people, stay away from them.  People have choices, and I detest people who want to force me to think or do anything.  I am free person.  She should embrace her freedom to assemble with anyone she chooses.

  • Ms_Sunshine9898

    i think she’s trying to show white people how other people see them. not that they really need that. they see themselves like that everyday. . .

  • Lala

    White people are a minority in the world. It’s a misconception that they are some kind of “global majority.”  Blue eyes, for example, are possessed by only 2% of the world’s population. Not many Americans realize that every white person is just a few hours’ plane ride away from a country (in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, India, etc.) in which they will be gawked at in the streets as an exotic minority. It’s like this article has some bizarre motive of promoting the idea that white people are commonplace, when in fact statistics prove quite the opposite.

    • Mls2698

      You’re right. The first time I saw one of those white mice with reds eyes………WOW!

  • Guest

    Just weird. As a white woman who grew up in a white community, I never noticed my race. I knew about other races and was vaguely curious, that was about it. It was a healthy environment and free of racism. When I first made black friends at college, I was shocked by how much time they spent talking about “being black.”  I instinctively viewed it as a negative and unhelpful thing. It was a great luxury for me to grow up never having to think about my race, and I’d wish the same for my children… If we all were unaware of our own race, the world would be a better place. Anything positive that comes out of having “white pride” or “black pride” or “asian pride” is outweighed by all the negatives.

    • Mls2698

      How can we be unaware when white people keep reminding us? Just weird.

    • Msnaimah1985

      Unfortunately….you sound like a White person and this is the reason she put the project together. When you literally cannot drive to your local grocery store without being pulled over by the police, your cas searched, your belongings tossed around all simply because your are African in America, it is impossible to NOT think about being African in America. Fortunately for you you as you put grew up in a “ 
      a healthy environment and free of racism.” Most Africans in America do not grow up in neighborhoods and community free of racism. Some of your reality is just NOT THE REALTIY of the African experience in America. 

  • Nooneofyourdanmbusiness

    I didn’t see any “white” persons, all I saw was pink people…There is no such thing a “white” person unless that individual has furs..

  • Candacey Doris

    It’s an interesting concept. I’m not sure if it works though. Got to see more.

  • Leah12

    Umm…….Boring

  • FromUR2UB

    What’s new about these photographs?  This is the way we’re used to seeing white people, as the media presents them: the yuppies, suburbanites, country clubbers.  These are as stereotypical as any other, just not the kind of stereotypes anyone would resent.  Though I realize that all 50 photos couldn’t be included in the article, the ones shown are very myopic in what they display.  Where are the bikers, mechanics, tatoo artists, Appalachians, food service workers, incarcerated, and the whites who aren’t considered privileged.  All white people aren’t educated, well-spoken, good spellers, clean cut, money smart, or whatever other flattery that’s often applied to them.    

    I wasn’t going to say anything about this, but it’s buggin’ me.  The photographer is a dark-skinned woman who seemingly took pictures of her ideal white world.  Ugh!  I am so sick of that cliche’.

    • Mls2698

      Slow day, I guess? What I want to see is a book that shows different people, and you have to guess their profession, or economic level based on appearances. Sort of like the mathematician who looks like a street bum because he has lost touch of reality, only deals with numbers. Or the black lawyer that gets mistaken for the janitor. The white guy who looks like a redneck, but belongs to the NAACP. Let me stop giving out ideas…….

      • FromUR2UB

        That would certainly challenge conventional thought, wouldn’t It? 

  • Lucky

    My feelings are so heavy on this subject, I can’t even begin to put them into words :(

  • Msnaimah1985

    I mean I understand her point, but I don’t think this project is conveying that at all.

  • Msnaimah1985

    I don’t really understand the point.

  • http://twitter.com/Cognorati001 Colette Marcheline

    I don’t think the photos are very effective.  It’s just a bunch of white people– maybe if she had put them in a group of all Blacks or something.  I think it’s because we see white people so much, there’s nothing to the pics except for seeing more white people..

    • Miss B

      I think that was her point. She doesn’t want it to be obvious because in reality it’s not obvious to them; to many of them (in my opinion) because they are the privileged ones in this society, they’re not forced to acknowledge their “whiteness.” She wants it to be just about them, adding a black person in the picture, I think, would take away from her concept. Sometimes we have to dig a lot deeper to get the meaning of something.

      • Papillon

        I agree with Colette. White people see themselves everywhere.  You could probably call these photos “Portraits of Americans” and they wouldn’t see the difference.

        I do think the concept is interesting.

      • http://twitter.com/Cognorati001 Colette Marcheline

        I think I may be missing something, but I don’t understand how it would work that way? I think they would just look at the pics and say, “Yeah, so it’s a picture of me?” Whiteness is so ingrained in their consciousness that they won’t notice it or it won’t register (everything is always “about them” anyhow).  Also, if we didn’t know that the photographer is Black the pics would be meaningless.  I tend to divert from the normal stance in modern art because I think the pics should stand on their own — the point should be undeniable.  

        • Miss B

          The point in art should never be undeniable. We can all look at the same image but, pull different meanings from them…for me at least art should be something to explore and look deeper into, not something that’s obvious…leave that to science…(you can relate it to todays music, music with meaning and depth, are what majority seem to be missing, compared to some music today that is cliche and obvious) Her project was a conversational piece, the title alone is what should have gotten white people and all people talking about it. If you walked into an art exhibit and saw a project titled “My White Friends” with stereotypical, non-complex pictures…you wouldn’t search for a deeper menaning? It’s easy (especially as a minority) to assume that white people would get nothing from it because they see these pictures all the time but, I know if I saw similarily non-complex pictures of a whole bunch of black people, I’d wonder and converse about what the artists meaning was.

        • Barryavann

          How would you know what is ingrained in their consciousness?  You are judging people based on their race, so are you not ra acist?  I think anytime you see a person and develop mental framework on their invisibale traits based on their obsvious features, you have demonstrated racism.  What would you say if a white person said that because blacks score 15 points lower than whites on IQ tests, they are all dumb?  That too would be racist.  Open your mind!

      • Mls2698

        I could be wrong about this, but ……….If a white person took pics of all of their ” black” friends, would that seem a little like reaching? Sort of fitting in the see,  ” I have black friends” category. It’s just pics of white folk…..something we see every day. When you show pics of blacks, it’s not the norm for them because they have an existence of only being around a few blacks socially ( example: the author being the only black), they are intrigued, and unaware, which makes for art. Pictures of them…..not so much.

        • Miss B

          I get what you mean. It’s all in how we perceive things. If we constantly take the surface for reality, we will never see or get the deeper meaning. Some of the things you mentioned are generalizations. 

          Me telling someone that “this is a ball,” rather than showing them a ball and letting them figure out themselves brings about two very different conclusions. You have one person who is being told the truth (which may not be the truth) and one person who is finding out the truth on their own…we seem to get the meaning more, when we can see it for ourselves, rather than be told what something means and forced to see it one way.

  • L-Boogie

    No, thank you.  No book in my future. 

    • Mls2698

      A book with white folks in it? I’ve seen it before…..kindergarten through high school.

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