The Underground Railroad is shrouded as much in myth as in fact. The Underground Railroad related project "Night coming Tenderly, Black" is a visual reimaginging of the movement of fugitive slaves through the Cleveland and Hudson, Ohio landscapes as they approached Lake Erie and the final passage to freedom in Canada. Using both real and imagined sites, these landscape photographs seek to recreate the spatial and sensory experiences of those moving furtively through the darkness. These photographs are also a material conversation with the photographs of Roy De Caraca, in which the black subject often emerges out of the darkness of the photographic print; that material darkness here being a metaphor for an enveloping physical darkness, a passage to liberation that was a protective cover for the escaping African American slaves. A final touchstone for the work is the title, which references Langston Hughes's poem "Dream Variations," with its final refrain: "Night coming tenderly / Black like me." D.B.
Descriptive statement about "Night Coming Tenderly, Black," a portfolio of ten photographs of houses amongst trees and foliage, processed so that they are very dark and the details of the images are difficult to discern.
Notes:
Edition 7/10 + 2 AP A portfolio of ten photographs of houses amongst trees and foliage, processed so that they are very dark and the details of the images are difficult to discern.
Cite As:
Dawoud Bey (American, born 1953), Night Coming Tenderly, Black, 2018. Gelatin silver print, sheet: 50.8 × 61 cm. Acquired through the Nancy Horton Bartels, Class of 1948, Endowment, TR10122.001–.013.
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