Black women and their innate femininity have been photographed over years of ubiquitous hardship and struggle. However, recently, photographers have shifted the focus to their resilience and beauty.

Hence, Black women have shown their “strength” and have perpetrated culture in ways that have become a staple of Black femininity.

But often, Black women are burdened with the masculine, atrophy, and contradiction to the soft and delicate. Masculine associations with Black women hinder the feminine factor that exists.

Yet, the image of Black women is often skewed through a modern context. Thus, reflecting ideas of macho-ism and laddish behavior.

Black Femininity through the lens

Consequently, Millennial and Generation Z photographers have taken to the image of Black women and have accentuated their existence.

Photographers like Renell M., Mark C., Micaiah C, Tyler Mitchell, Daniel Obasi, Joshua Kissi, Deana Lawson, and Dario Calmese, have all given their lens to Black femininity. 

The struggles and the positioning of Black people in society are artfully crafted in a single image. Image-makers like Lawson play an important role. 

In fact, Lawson does us a visual service with her portraits, highlighting the love a Black woman receives. The context lives in the unseen of the life inside a Black house-hold. Lawson retrospectively captures the love Black women have for themselves and their black femininity.

Thus, icons like Serena Williams, Beyonce, and Grace Jones have weathered the storm of critique on their black femininity. 

Serena Williams

For example, there is tennis star Serena Williams. She got scrutinized for doing what any man would do in an athletic environment.

Williams, on the contrary, has dictated by her work-ethic for the sport and her athleticism. She has worked to maintain a physique that some argue is not feminine [-enough].

Yet, she stands alone on a pedestal as arguably the greatest-athlete – among all athletes, including men – of all time. 

Her winning mentality lent to the non-feminine association when she got into a heated discourse with an umpire at a tennis match. Thoughts of her angered over a call subsided as she gave birth to a child amid her illustrious career.

Beyoncé

On the other hand, Beyoncé suffered a critique in a similar setting after performing at Super Bowl 50. After the game, degrading comments were made following the rumored reasons for the power outages toward her.

Likewise, Mrs. Knowles-Carter became a political threat to society and an internet meme for having a transformative gender aesthetic within her performance. Not to mention, they claimed she “attacked” the police.

Thus, a still shot of her performance captured her muscle-tone in a way that some viewers saw as masculine. And sadly, deafening the femininity of her song.

Tyler Mitchell

However, Tyler Mitchell may have remedied that association later. His 2016 Vogue cover mirror what black femininity is really about.

The editorial captures Beyonce in a sun-drenched expanse of a yard, surrounded by soft-colored and floral patterned bedsheets on a clothes-line. Thus, Beyonce wears floral headdresses and dresses in a variety of styles, giving her a motherly, ‘homemaker’ aesthetic.

This traditional scope of femininity was a coming of age for the soon-to-be mother of 3.

Grace Jones

In a similar way, Grace Jones famously took on the masculinity perceived among Black women and made it her calling-card. In turn, she took Black femininity to an ambiguous state and brought it all home with the fashion that she dawned, fit for her future-fem persona. 

Photographed by Jean-Paul Goude, Grace Jones’ iconic photo showing her in a yoga-esque pose holding a mic.

This moment was perhaps the femininity she sought while displaying a strength unique to her. Subliminally, giving a voice to the group.

Black femininity in contrast

Words and anger from the public on these figures have contrasted femininity and have been unfair. The struggle for Black women is the notion that they are non-feminine. Depicted through a narrow and stereotypical lens.

Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis made this claim in her interview with Vanity Fair title “My Whole Life has Been a Protest.”

In the interview, Davis lays out the very nuanced and racist approach Black women within the art context and their public image.

“Who’s telling a dark-skinned girl that she’s pretty? Nobody says it. I’m telling you, Sonia, nobody says it. The dark-skinned Black woman’s voice is so steeped in slavery and our history. If we did speak up, it would cost us our lives. Somewhere in my cellular memory was still that feeling—that I do not have the right to speak up about how I’m being treated, that somehow I deserve it.” 

Viola Davis, Vanity Fair

Davis goes on to say, “I did not find my worth on my own.” Possibly referring to femininity granted to white women (or women who are not Black).

This way, ideas of the non-feminine Black women, or the emasculating Black women, are long-toothed at this point.

Black women’s bodies have been subject to the will of white men throughout the pain and history. Not to mention, early medicine. In a deeper context, this involved slavery practices, surgical studies, biological testing, and sexual pleasure.

In a way, this forced procreation of Black people to further the slave trade.

It comes from the past

Dr. Samuel Cartwright published “Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race” in 1851. The article claims that bearers of Black skin were “partial insensibility.” As a result, this led to a snowfall of ideas and concepts that Black people were forced to confront.

Dr. J. Marion Sims was known as “the father of gynecology” during the 19th century. This was due to his white privilege over Black women’s bodies and their wombs. Sadly, he did as he pleased to many Black women without any political, societal, moral, or principal deterrence.

Furthermore, in the early 1800s, Saartje [Sarah] Baartman was subjected to European objectification for her full figure and Black skin as a staged circus act. Baartman wasn’t considered feminine. In fact, she was viewed as a physical anomaly, remote from any human connotation. 

The South African woman ironically was headlined to the masses as “Hottentot Venus.” “Hottentot” is the name that represents her African origins of the nomadic Khoi people.

The irony comes in the “Venus” name as it directly refers to the Roman goddess of love and fertility. Traits granted to women of other ethnicity or race. An innate feminine role. 

Yet, the image of Black women today contradicts the “strong Black woman” is an “angry Black woman.” She is a woman.

American women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth may have questioned her existence with her “Ain’t I A Women?” speech. 

The overall treatment of Black women was disputed in her words and later adopted by white women’s societal groups. Truth undoubtedly re-affirmed who she already knew to be a Black woman.

Giving way for generations of women who feel femininity is a struggle rather than a unique advantage of being a woman.

Look out for this article on PAGE magazine.

Boudoir style fashion photography is something that has been seen with more relevance during the pandemic, as work-from-home orders and leisurewear brands have finally found a respectable place in the world.

Among leisurewear is lingerie, let us not forget.

Savage X Fenty, Agent Provocateur, and other underwear brands can thank the pandemic for spicing up this market with everyone restricted indoors.

And, when it comes to lingerie, that means in the bedroom. En Française, boudoir translates, loosely, as “private room setting,” or “bedroom,” or “upper-class woman” in some contexts.

Boudoir style fashion photography as a tool

Boudoir photography has been the core messaging tool for the likes of Savage X Fenty and Agent Provocateur.

Boidoir fashion is a style that has come to age in photography during the 1960s and the 1970s. During that time of liberation, women accepted nudity, a rejection of the homemaker or housewife fashion aesthetic embedded in previous boudoir photography.

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Thus, it was an evolution of women who were confident with their curvy figures, coming to acknowledge the “pin-up” girl, something seen – ubiquitously yet inconspicuously – attracting men of the 1920s and the swing era of the 30s and 40s.

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The boudoir photographic perspective followed a painter’s eye; painters like Edouard Manet and his “Olympia,” or the in a recent review, Pablo Picasso and his “Les Demoiselle d’Avignon,” seen through a feminist scope as sexist.

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Feminine fashion

Opening the doors for all body-types to participate in the boudoir genre has been the cornerstone for feminine fashion. Still, the lingerie and implied nudity skew the thinking of predatory photographers seeking to take advantage of unexpecting aspiring models.

The looming danger still lurks, as seen by the toxic photography of @LivinCool on Instagram, Emanuele D’Angelo. D’Angelo is still currently under scrutiny for being exposed as a sexual predator.

But, cancel culture spared no expense to reveal the plight. He used his photographic clout to lure unsuspecting women into precarious situations and involuntarily mishandled out of their already sheer garments.

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Still, since the retail giant Victoria’s Secret hit the mainstream markets in 1977, at the height of the boudoir era, women have adorned themselves in the name brand.

Natural physiques of boudoir style were highlighted in fashion photography. In soft, lightweight, sheer, and decorative fabrics made from silk, lycra, chiffon, satin, and lace.

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Boudoir style and Victoria’s Secret

Thus, Victoria’s Secret can take credit for the embrace of women’s bodies beyond the taboo.

In lieu, VS has also been on the cancel culture list as the culprit of body-shaming. They openly embraced an ideal body type, though they have opened up their catalog of models to other sizes.

Women who are comfortable enough to dress up in the trendiest designed lingerie often want to remember the moment outside of immediate context.

The feel of getting dressed – ‘down’ – in undergarments employs self-esteem worth exploring.

Men need not feel excluded from boudoir style fashion photography. Savage X Fenty has included men into their marketing campaigns (singer, Miguel and his partner, boasting traditional bedroom ‘fit’ of silk boxers and a robe, but with a modern flare).

Look out for this article on PAGE magazine.

Art collecting has long been a luxury for those who can afford to partake in leisure. In most cases, this is the economic advantage of societal white privilege. However, Black people collecting Black art is more common today than it ever has been.

Charles Moore’s brief history of Black artists in America contributes to our interest and insight into art collecting with The Black Market: A Guide to Art Collecting.

Previously, Moore published various works on contemporary arts for notable publications like Artnet, Artsy, and Cultured Magazine, to name a few. 

The value of Black art

For one, daily living factors like shelter, water, vitamins, and nutrients, are far from the thought of art. But in society, it is the expression of culture and the ethos of an era.

These factors make art such a valuable part of life and some of the few things to appreciate over time, regardless of the economy. 

Often, the art market is immune to the typical volatility of the economic markets in which its clients usually have large stakes. This kind of economy usually affects minority groups mostly, especially Black people.

Author, curator, and overall Black art enthusiast Charles Moore has made it his life’s work to remedy the perceptions of elitism in art collecting.

Charles Moore’s contributions to Black artists

Moore has rigorously taught the value of Black artists throughout his career. Straddling along the lines of what artwork sells and the many artists we can grow to love.

The Harvard University graduate feels that the undervalued Black art market deserves a reappraisal. Black artists and their works are neglected to a full extent by the leaders of industry throughout history.

The Black Market presents a brief art history about Black artists born between 1900 to 1990. That information complements recommendations for literature on Black culture and Black artists. 

There are remarks on younger Millennial artists like Tschabalala Self, whose works can go for six figures or more. Renee Cox, Norman Lewis, and even Derrick Adams are categorized.

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Collecting art on the Black art market

Moore helps readers decipher these artists’ intrinsic value to Black art and Black culture from a cultivated perspective. He insists this is just a preliminary experience for readers of all education levels and knowledge of the art world.

“Black artists have historically been undervalued because the system that placed value on art didn’t allow them to participate in the reasons the market placed higher values on work. That is, the artists were not accepted into the academic institutions that provided training and criticism that cultivated their talent.” 

Charles Moore

His sentiment goes beyond traditional auction houses and galleries where art can be wagered on our dollar(s).

“The museums and other institutions didn’t place validation by placing their work in the halls [of the] gatekeepers of the arts. And collectors didn’t collect their work, therefore placing market value and demand in primary, secondary, and auctions.” 

Charles Moore

Building collections out of Black art

As we see more depictions of Black people in commercial settings, there has still been a trope of discernment in favor of white artists. Moore, as well as other curators, like Everette Taylor, CMO of Artsy, has been building collections and identifying rising talent for mainstream audiences. 

With that, Moore also delves into the consumption of fine art by Black artists into collections of white collectors and institutions founded by the hegemony.

“Right now, Black artists are having a moment! But the art that is going for thousands of dollars, that is predominantly figurative work, highlighting the Black body, is collected by white collectors. This is not to say that they shouldn’t have the opportunity to own these works. They should. And so should the prestigious institutions that historically shut out the Black artists.”

Charles Moore

Moore describes the ability to see art beyond its artistic value but rather, its economic value. He knows the struggles of deciding where to put your money when you have a limited amount of it. Moore teaches readers to recognize the intrinsic value of the art and the artist combined.

Giving back to Black culture

“The art world loves to tell you ‘buy what you love’ and worry about what financial value that brings. That is right and wrong. You should always buy what you love. Additionally, you should understand the power and social capital that comes along with ownership.”

Charles Moore

Moore’s acknowledgment of social capital speaks volumes of the importance of ownership of culture, Black culture. 

“I bought my first piece of art for $50, at the ICA Boston museum in 2012. I continued to buy limited edition prints that cost me under $250 for the next year. As I learned more about collecting, I changed my taste in the art I collected.

But if I wanted to continue to buy works of art, under $1,000, there is plenty of it out there. And one could find a classically trained painter or photographer or sculptor early along in their career and find works of art in their respective budgets.”

Charles Moore

The Black Market highlights museums and their exhibitions, galleries, art shows, and auctions. Moore’s interviews highlight a range of collectors, from an artist who collects Black art, to a reputable art school that reveals their secrets on collecting art. 

The book also features a collection of essays by the Black art enthusiast, describing his interactions with fellow art collectors. Whether that is with collectors who started a year ago, or collectors with years of experience, there is perspective to be learned. 

“Before you begin collecting art, I recommend collecting books–about art, and learn to develop your taste. I think The Black Market would be a good addition to your reading, and I’ve done my best to give some valuable guidance.”

Charles Moore

Look out for this article on PAGE magazine.