Carrie Mae Weems

American photographer and artist. Her award-winning photographs, films, and videos have been displayed in over 50 exhibitions in the United States and abroad and focus on serious issues that face African Americans today, such as racism, gender relations, politics, and personal identity. Early photographs told the story of her family moving from the South to the North, using her family as a model for a larger theme. In the 1980s, Weems began moving away from documentary photography; instead creating representations that appeared to be documents but were in fact staged and also incorporating text, using multiples images and constructing narratives. Gender issues were the next focal point for her. It was the topic of one of her most well known collections, The Kitchen Table series. Expressed disbelief and concern about the exclusion of images of the black community, women, from the popular media, and aims to represent these excluded subjects and speak to their experience through her work. Numerous awards include the Skowhegan Medal for Photography (2007), Anonymous was a Woman Award (2007), and the MacArthur Fellowship (2013).