Carrie Mae Weems

Carrie Mae Weems, an American artist and photographer, is renowned for her multi-dimensional installations that blend photography, audio, and text to scrutinize various aspects of contemporary American existence. Besides her community outreach efforts, Weems is prolific in different mediums.

Despite her reputation as a photographer, Weems initially studied modern dance and only received her first camera in her 20s. Her first photographic project, Environmental Profits, captured life in Portland, Oregon, while her first significant series, Family Pictures and Stories, documented her friends and family candidly and intimately. She completed the series five years later. Weems graduated with a B.A. from the California Institute of the Arts in 1981 and later received an M.F.A. (1984) from the University of California, San Diego, and an M.A. (1987) from the University of California, Berkeley.

Weems's work is influenced by earlier African American photographers who chronicled the Black experience, particularly Roy DeCarava. She began to refer to herself as the "image maker." Her early photographs, often accompanied by text and audio recordings, explored personal and family themes. In 1990, she produced her seminal work, The Kitchen Table Series, a sequence of staged photographs depicting everyday episodes from a woman's life within her kitchen space.