“Questions of limits and spectrums are ones I’ve thought on in abundance as an artist, a black artist, in  professional realms and endeavors like these. We often consider such questions because in the paradigm of racialization, We are rarely showing up for Ourselves (whether We want that burden or not).  But what is “the right way” appear?  

The quagmire of adhering to an absolute “right” or “wrong” exists inside of the practice of photography  because of the medium’s representational power and racialization’s creation of monolithic social  categorizations. In any of Our many revolutionary movements, We have called upon both of those  powers to undo the terrible and lasting images white gaze has made for Us. Our work towards self determination has and continues to be mitigated through dual politics, or, the creation of two camps in  black visual aesthetic articulation: the political and the provincial. The former being those works that lean  into the extreme discomfort and alienation of racial conflict and the latter being those who contribute to,  “…the field of black representation…from a place of cultural familiarity, affinity, and reflection,” (Sealy,  2019).  

We have been largely tricked—inside the confines of these institutions—into debating back and forth  over which way is right or wrong, when all along, both approaches have been working in tandem. What  happens when we replace desires for easy dichotomies with global and intersectional understandings  and interpretations? I believe that this year’s fellows, Kaima Marie Akarue and Oji Haynes, use  representation in service to such an ontological alleviation.

The artists work intentionally as members of the culture without trying to speak for the culture, each  hoping to articulate a common tongue that can at once be simple, profound, painful, beautiful, humanly.”

– Zora J Murff, Juror