The Image of Whiteness

Daniel Blight, Writer and Lecturer, University of Brighton

A conversation with Claudia Rankine, Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry and moderated by Leah Mirakhor.
The invention and continuance of the “white race” is not just a political, social and legal phenomenon – it is also visual. From the advent of early colonial photography in the 19th century to contemporary social media and photographic art, photography has always played and continues to play an integral role in the maintenance of the political and social hegemony of “whiteness”. The technology of the camera is not innocent, nor are the images it produces or the people who make them.
This presentation and discussion engages the oppressive nature of whiteness, and highlights some of the crucial work contemporary photographic artists are doing to subvert and critique its image and its continuing power.
Photo Credit: Buck Ellison, The Prince Children, Holland, Michigan, 2019. Courtesy of the artist and The Sunday Painter.

Poster

Friday, September 20, 2019 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm
Yale Center for British Art (YCBA ), Lecture Hall See map
1080 Chapel Street
New Haven, CT 06510