Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Skin Trade (An Awakening)


Rereading Ann DuCille
Originally uploaded by Zanalee

Re-reading Ann DuCille's "Skin Trade" this morning, it is becoming more and more obvious to me that Whites have been profitting off of the sale of Black skin long after the abolition of slavery and in my side hobby customizing Black Blythe Dolls and in many other ways it has become more obvious to me that Black skin has made and is still making countless amounts of money for whites to this day. For me the truly sick thing about that, aside from the ways in which we as Blacks knowingly or unknowingly support that and the fact that we see little to none of that money ourselves, is that WHITE PEOPLE STILL HATE US!!!

Oh I said it.

The majority of white corporations who re-appropriate and re-package ethnic culture to sell back to us, still think of us as inhuman, inferior, lazy, oversexed, unintelligent, angry, hoodlums.

Yeah. In future entries, I will be listing all of my favorite white owned ethnic culture selling, black hating companies and you can judge for yourself. The media's little post racial fantasy is just a dream or nightmare depending on who is sleeping.

My thing is, if anybody is going to sell "Blackness" to me or anybody, let it be me. Let it be someone who is not attempting to interpret what is means, in order to make a buck but someone who is representing what it means so that we can see this representation reflected in our market in the most honest way possible the way that it is represented globally in life, on the corner, in the metropolitan, in the cities, in our communities, in life!

The exploration, marketing, packaging and selling of "Blackness" has been for too long disproportionately in the hands of non-Black people. Slavery has never ended. There's just too much money it.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Sunday in Park with Cece Olisa

I spent a lovely afternoon working with my dear friend and fashion blogger, Cece Olisa on a photoshoot for her The Big Girl Blog right here in our Harlem neighborhood. The morning sky started out really grey but we managed to catch some really good light in the park and I was really happy with the way the pictures turned out. The image to the right was among my very favorite. I really like everything about it, from the color of Cece's elegant wrap dress, her relaxed pose and facial expression to the seasonal Autumn leaves at her feet and the trees and buildings in the background.

I don't consider myself an expert when it comes to directing people in photoshoots but I've been working with Cece for a while now and It also really helps that she has a strong and clear vision of what she wants. This image is part of the Facebook page Zanography which I created to showcase what I feel is some of my best photographic work. Feel free to visit and "like" me!