Self-portrait, by Deborah Willis (2020)
"Sources of Self-Regard: Self-Portraits From Black Photographers Reflecting on America" is a new interactive story created by The New York Times in honor of Juneteenth –– the day the last enslaved people in Texas received the news of emancipation. Dr. Deborah Willis, chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, contributed the essay to accompany these powerful images:
"Looking inward and outward at the same time allows me to think about my own responsibility and choices within our society.
...
In truth, we all have been forced to look at ourselves and our intimate spaces and environments, and to consider our feelings of pleasure, complacency, fear and loss. The self-portraiture genre exposes those moments of vulnerability and the desire to seek the idealized self. There are moments of gloom but hopefulness prevails as the camera is used to document the extremes of emotions."