Art. Carrie Mae Weems Collection.

Carrie Mae Weems


Born in Portland, Oregon in 1953, Carrie Mae Weems is an extremely prolific and profound African-American photographer. Her works are a “must see” for any emerging fine art photographer, especially for those who create works focused on a personal narrative.

In the case of Weems’ work, she artfully blends her personal narrative with a historical one, within the overarching framework of race, sex, class and politics. According to the artist herself:

“My work has led me to investigate family relationships, gender roles, the histories of racism, sexism, class, and various political systems. Despite the variety of my explorations, throughout it all it has been my contention that my responsibility as an artist is to work, to sing for my supper, to make art, beautiful and powerful, that adds and reveals; to beautify the mess of a messy world, to heal the sick and feed the helpless; to shout bravely from the roof-tops and storm barricaded doors and voice the specifics of our historic moment.

Storytelling is fundamental to my work, a way to best express the human condition that has been a focus of my art from my earliest documentary photographic series…”

A small retrospective of her work is currently on view here in New York at the Guggenheim Museum until May 14th 2014.


Family Pictures 1981-1982

Carrie Mae Weems Family Pictures, Black Contemporary Artists

Untitled, Woman and Daughter With Children, From “The Kitchen Table Series” 1990 (one of her best known works)

Carrie Mae Weems Kitchen Table

Africa 1993

Carrie Mae Weems Africa 1993, Black Contemporary Artists

From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried 1995-1996

Carrie Mae Weems

Carrie Mae Weems Dreaming in Cuba 2001

Carrie Mae Weems

Make Someone Happy 2004-2005 (From the video “Coming Up For Air)

Italian Dreams, 2006

Afro Chic, 2009

The Obama Project, 2012



For more works by Carrie Mae Weems.