This online course explores Black queer life, identity and history through an intimate engagement with artist and archivist, Alanna Fields' ever-growing archive of found and sourced vernacular photographs spanning the 1900s-1990s. Through photographic excavation the class will examine early self portraiture, photo booth portraits, playbill images, military portraits, and scenes depicting Black queer everyday life and love. Each class explores another layer of history untold and unseen as participants traverse through the archive and contextualize these images as a means of cultural analysis on Black queering in front of and behind the camera.
The course will culminate in the creation of original pieces utilizing the source material in the format of each participant's choosing. Participants will leave the course with a deeper, visceral picture of early Black queer life in the U.S.
