Art History Too exists because for far too long, art history has functioned as an archive of exclusion. The canon has been shaped by systems that decide who gets to be seen, who is remembered, and who is left out. This work pushes back. These photographs insist that Blackness, in its stillness, its tenderness, its full humanity, is not a disruption, but a foundation.
The photographs are rooted in black and white, a language I return to again and again for its stillness, its clarity, and its connection to memory. Some images are influenced by early processes like daguerreotypes and wet plates, drawn from the visual traditions I first encountered in my grandmother’s photo albums. Those pictures, delicate and worn, were my first museum. They were not hung on walls, but held in hands. Not labeled in textbooks, but passed down with care.
This work is not about filling in a gap, it is about reframing the conversation entirely. I am not asking to be included. I am documenting what already exists.
These aren’t just portraits. They are proof that we were here, that we are here, and that we are more than what history has allowed us to be.
I make this work to honor the people in the frame, and to remind us all that visibility is not a luxury. It’s a right.
This is Art History Too. And it always has been.
