“Can I Touch It?” – Woman Creates Art Project With A Difference

Photographer Endia Beal decided that during a five-week residency at the Centre of Photography in Woodstock, New York, she would create a project with a bit of a difference. 

Beal selected woman who were middle-aged and white, took them to a salon in New York and gave them a “black” hairstyle. After each woman received her hairstyle, Beal photographed each lady in a traditional corporate portrait pose.

The artsy project has a sense of humour however Beal is hoping her images will open a dialogue about race, gender, and generations, and the way we express ourselves, specifically in a corporate environment.

The inspiration behind “Can I Touch It?” came from Beal’s time as an intern in the IT department at Yale where her colleagues, mostly white males, were fascinated with her afro and wanted to touch it.

Beal referred to her afro as “the elephant in the room” and asked the men to touch and pull  her hair after which recorded them a week later on video talking about what was for many of the men a new experience.

“I wanted to allow someone to feel something different, to experience something they never had before, and through that experience, they felt uncomfortable," she said.

"And then to talk about it kind of amplifies that feeling."

 

Hat-tip: Slate.