AAPGuild - Shawn W. Walker

Shawn W. Walker (b. 1940)

Has taken self-portraits that are surreal studies of his own shadow. In documenting his reflection on various surfaces, he creates ambiguous forms that demonstrate his interest in photographic tableaux. Using text and images based on Ralph Ellison's book Invisible Man (1952), Walker successfully analyzes his presence in American society. He writes:

Brothers and sisters, my text this morning is the blackness of blackness. And a congregation of voices answered: "That blackness is most black.... Int he begining there was blackness....I lived in the darkness into which I was chased, but now I see....I've illuminated the blackness of my invisibility and vice versa; and so I play the invisible music of my isolation.

Courtesy: Reflections in Black: A History of Black Phtographers from 1840 to the Present, by Deborah Willis

Back To Timeline Home