Deborah Willis and Manthia Diawara, the former Director of the NYU Institute of African American Affairs
The online arts magazine Hyperallergic recently published an interview with the chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Deborah Willis. Jasmine Weber spoke to her about her work on the occasion of her recent appointment as director of the NYU Institute of African American Affairs and the founding of the Center for Black Visual Culture:
Jasmine Weber: What was your intention in founding the Center for Black Visual Cultural as a complement to the Institute of African American Affairs?
Deborah Willis: I thought it was really important to think about what’s going on today with the archive of images that focus on Black culture — which circulate from memes, to images that explore critical narratives of Black Lives Matter, to advertising images. I thought it would be a great opportunity to start placing the archive and history with contemporary stories. I wanted to explore this by finding new ways to talk about the archive of Black images. We are aware of the range of digital culture and how contemporary artists are incorporating stories from new media, such as television shows and live streaming shows, so, how are we talking about it?
"Rethinking the Archive of Black Visual Culture with Deborah Willis," November 5, 2018
