The Monument Project

This is an abstract of the "Monument" Project Prof. Herndon's project. You will do some work with Prof. Herndon this summer or during the school year. Take a look and see if you have any ideas and contact Prof. Herndon.

“MONUMENT” at its core is a photographic portrait series of African American men who have reached their majority (50-60 years and older.)  Some may be well known.  Some will be lifted from obscurity.  They all will have lived upstanding lives and served as models of healthy manhood.  On one level Monument is an exhibition, a gallery collection of large photographic images.  Monument comes alive, though, when the multimedia components (video, picture stories, slideshows and audio interviews) are added.  These additional layers of information afford the viewing public access to rich media, on the web, on-demand.  The viewers can have it when and where they like, in a gallery space, online, and the stories can be made available for subsequent publication.    

The African American male is the most vilified and denigrated character in the story of the United States of America.  Yet, he continues to survive and prosper.  He has served in every role, including the President of the United States.  Yet, the American mindset that the black man has no right to honor or distinction persists in many circles.  I intend to confront that mindset, head-on.

These portraits are conceived first, as large vertical images, 7 to 8 feet tall.  These large graphic images will be created in such a way, as to avoid the trappings of ego, for the subjects and the photographer (myself.)  The purpose of the scale will be to allow the examination in detail, of the faces of these 50 to 100 men from around the country.   

Seeing the men on such a monumental scale, eye-to-eye, will conceptually force the viewer to confront their individual beliefs about the African American male.  Those beliefs will stand in clear relief when the viewer is subsequently afforded the curriculum vitae of the individuals, and interviews, as part of the exhibition.  The portraits appeal to one type of image consumer, the museum/ gallery culture and can provide legitimacy. Media coverage of the gallery exhibition will also serve to promote the larger Monument project.  The multimedia component appeals to a different demographic, the younger viewer and the Internet savvy.  It also provides an instant global potential to the Monument message. This level of access gives the ability for the “message,” of the solvency of the Black male role model, to spread further, as the multimedia elements can be digested and re-presented at a later time.  The website will be capable of accepting the work of other artists and journalists.  This will allow the text of Monument to grow into a document that the African American community can take ownership of, over time.

There is an insidious strain of thought and practice that leads us to believe or assume that we can judge a person by his appearance.  Since the early 1900’s the pseudo-science of Eugenics has claimed that “reading” physical characteristics can tell one something about the essence of a man.  Pure racism inculcates this same “knowledge” in the member of a culture where it exists.  This essentialism has been the bane of the African’s existence in the Americas.  It is my premise, this series can help put this essentialism to rest, or at the least, combat it.

The project will require a year, to a year and half, to make portraits across the United States.  During that time, promotion of the effort will build public awareness, to help gain access to significant venues and a critical examination of the work produced.  This time frame will also place us squarely in the 2012 U.S. election season, with early exhibitions prior to the election date.  As with the last election, I anticipate a healthy dose of racial animus accompanying the campaign, assuming President Obama is the Democratic candidate.