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She is the first African-American photographer whose works have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Encounter with Ming Smith, artist born in 1950, in Detroit. From November 7 to 10, she exhibited her delicate and floating photographs at Paris Photo, the world's largest photographic art fair.
She is tiny, endowed with African braids lying down and a look sometimes pensive, sometimes dubious. The boa around the neck makes her look like a dancer. It was during one of the first tours of the great American choreographer Alvin Ailey in France that she saw and photographed Paris for the first time. " Two of the company's dancers were my friends. They were walking on the Eiffel Tower. I always have the scene in mind. Here, there is also a photo with Judith Jamison, who will become the death of Alvin Ailey [1989] the artistic director. "
Born in 1950 in Detroit, a pharmacist father, she grew up in Columbus, Ohio. After studying medicine and microbiology in Washington DC, she earns her living mostly as a model [so she meets Grace Jones ...]. Married to David Murray, a jazz musician, she moved to New York, between Harlem and Greenwich Village and traveled the world, never forgetting to bring her camera ...
Witness of African-American culture
At Paris Photo, on the stand of the Jenkins Johnson Gallery in San Francisco, she displays a small panorama of her photographs from the 1970s to the 1990s. Precious testimonies of life - sometimes ordinary and sometimes extraordinary - and of the culture of African-Americans : a very well dressed little boy squatting in the street, a mother with her daughter in a phone booth, a waitress in a fast food restaurant ...
► Watch video : African American artist Kehinde Wiley: a word, a gesture, a silence
She immortalizes mainly African American artists meanwhile become legendary: Duke Ellington, James Baldwin, Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Sun Ra or Grace Jones: " Grace Jones was my friend, long before she became a star. I took pictures of her before she went to Paris and became Grace Jones. Here, we see her dressed as a classical dancer [in a black and white tutu]. "
Tina Turner poses for her in front of the Brooklyn Bridge. " She was making a video for her song What's Love Got to Do With It [1984]. And I was one of the dancers in the movie. At the time, as a black woman, it was not possible for me to live with photography. So I did a lot of different things, like pictures for people I liked, like Tina Turner. It was his first song after his divorce with Ike Turner. "
Every photo an artistic act
His very personal way of making light on the film gives his prints another dimension. As if she managed to fix the spirit of a moment while allowing time to pass. For example, when she captures Sun Ra, mythical pianist of Afro-futurism and free jazz, transcended by light in a small jazz club in New York. Or the image of James Baldwin seated in the ranks of an empty theater whose seats are slightly colored in a tone of purple. In Paris Photo, each photo seems to express an artistic act: double exposure, game with the focus, photos sometimes marked by the blur, but always in black and white:
" When I started with photography, there was a big debate : photography, is it an art ? They are photographers like Brassaï who led me to photography. At the time, if you wanted to be a serious photographer, it was black and white. Color, it was unthinkable. Sometimes I regretted not having made color photos. Later, I lugged two cameras with me, one for black and white, another for color. And at one point even a camera to make video. "
" There was no one but me "
In the 1970s, she became the first female African-American photographer whose work entered the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. " At the time, it was like receiving an Oscar, but nobody knew about it. On the other hand, it encouraged me a lot. So, I was in the collection, but nothing really happened after that. There was no exhibition, no discussions, no collectors rushing on my work. I needed forty years to have real recognition. But it gave me courage. Because there was no one but me.
See also: The Color Line, a re-evaluation of African-American artists
I had discussed this with my former husband, jazz musician David Murray. I said to him : as a musician, at least you have models or someone you can follow in his footsteps. There are jazz clubs, meeting points. As a woman photographer, there was nothing. So that allowed me to take insurance. "
Admittedly, by entering the MoMA collection in 1975, she had crossed the "color line", the color line. Shortly before, she became the first female member of the group of African-American photographers Kamoinge, based in Harlem and eager to change the look on African-Americans. Despite this, his life as a photographer remained a fight " for survival, to become someone ". Her philosophy of photography, she explains it as follows:
" Photography is like jazz "
" For me, photography is first and foremost a spiritual activity. After, it's like jazz. There is a lot of improvisation and composition. We have to deal with when someone suddenly appears in the frame, when the person moves or turns his head, when the light changes because of a cloud ... How to capture the best image at the right time? All these elements contribute to obtain the photo that I wish to make, to have the feeling of making the photographic art. "
In 2010, she was part of a major exhibition that has since made history: Women's Photographs : A History of Modern Photography at the Museum of Modern Arts in New York. Since then, his work is more and more noticed. In 2017, an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, on the fight of black artists, also honors his photographic work: We Wanted A Revolution : Black Radical Women, 1965-85 .
See also : Women photographers, a whole story
Has the look on women, and especially on black women, changed? " Women today, especially young women, are pioneers. They start something new. I think it's a natural evolution. The most we try to understand ourselves, our surroundings and the injustices ... My great-great-grandfather was a slave ! My grandfather still remembered to become a free man ... "
► Ming Smith Solo Show at Paris Photo, Grand Palais, November 7-10, 2019