Audrey and her Kodak

• Washington, DC

• 1960

Photo of young Audrey (Umi) with mother Carmen (R) and cousin Margie (L) in front of Lincoln Memorial.

Notes: I've noticed the photo of a person taking a photo or holding a camera is somewhat iconic. Here, I've included them because it makes me think of the role of the photographer in the lives of Black people. There is a lot of documenting of Black people even before the invention of the camera, and that documentation has been a form of surveillance and control, as well as a judgment of who is human — considering the way it is still hard to capture Black people correctly, from cameras to facial recognition technology. There are a LOT of photos in Umi's archive and the choice to invest time and money into capturing these moments speaks to me about a kind of self-determination: I will capture myself the way I see myself and want to be known.