Holding and Breaking

In this photograph, Lorna Simpson uses sequential images to tell a story. The first shows, from behind, the upper torso of an ambiguously gendered Black subject. The second shows a glass held in the figure’s hands, and the third shows the glass shattered on the floor below, with the words “an agreement” in bright green. From its original form to its broken state, the glass can be understood to represent the contract of an agreement that has not been honored. Simpson’s use of photographs in conjunction with text explores the ways in which context can affect meaning as well as the role of photography in society.