May Flowers

Photographs by Carrie Mae Weems make us look and think twice. At first glance, this seems to be a 19th-century sepia-toned print of three girls in an idyllic pastoral setting. They are tightly arranged within a circular frame, reminiscent of celestial angels in religious paintings from the Renaissance. When we look closer, we notice the expressions of these girls in floral dresses are focused and deliberate. The figure at center sizes us up, as if to dare us to include them in traditional art historical representations.