\u201cPhotography is writing through light\u201d<\/p>\n
Central to Shange\u2019s writings and black photography is the ability to capture emotions and life\u2019s mundane activities. Stories of the black individual\u2019s experience in America. The impacts of societal organization on the realities of each lived experience. Kamoinge\u2019s photographs in conversation with Shange\u2019s words grant access to an intimacy that one may not be worthy of or does not have the tools or experiences to understand. The writing as well as the photograph expands, complicates or perhaps simplify narratives by granting permission to the consumer. With this permission explicit contexts may not be available and thus allows the consumer to feel and imagine beyond the scope of the artist\u2019s intentions. The writings and the photographs give language to what is or what may seem inexpressible. As shange mentions, photographs hold memories beyond what is captured in \u201ca bit of the Lord will take you thru\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u201clight barely brushes their pictures\/ but the hope<\/p>\n
in the photographs makes light magnificent<\/p>\n
the memories flow on their own\/ or from the glistenin\u2019<\/p>\n
trumpet\/ the smile of the bride\/ the recruit<\/p>\n
before danger & sons a plenty to carry on the family<\/p>\n
names\u201d (3)<\/p>\n
In thinking about the relationship between poetry and photography, Ed Maximus is Haitian artist who has a photo series titled \u201cFor Colored Girls\u201d. I have very complicated feelings about this series as the portraits are of black women and the artist is a man. It puts into question the conversation his work is centered around and his decision and intentions to title the series \u201cFor Colored Girls\u201d<\/p>\n