Black youth culture influences every aspect of today's popular culture from slang to viral dances, Internet challenges, and highly stylized streetwear. Yet we don't usually get to see the actual youth creating these phenomenons. Their influence is mostly transmitted through memes, GIFS, Twitter, or video clips. Photographer Micaiah Carter changes that by making photographs of models, actors, musicians, and everyday Generation Z-ers in repose that recalls both the Black Power and disco eras.
Carter, who recently graduated from the New School in New York, says, “I wanted to create a new perspective while reaching in the past for inspiration and guidance.” The 21-year-old is interested in creating images that capture the beauty of blackness that bends the African diaspora together. “I want to create images that compel [black] stories, cultures, and ‘stereotypes,’ and create moods and environments that are almost unworldly within the context of blackness. The perspective that I'm bringing isn't focused on denouncing the stereotype. Instead, it's embracing it and taking it back to be culturally accepted in our own words.”
He shares more reflections on his work in an interview with ICP Projected curator Wesley Verhoeve.
During the day, 95 48 (A Preview) can be viewed on monitors inside the ICP Museum and during evening hours, images are literally “projected” onto the windows of the ICP Museum; they can be viewed from the sidewalk outside the Museum and are most visible after sunset.
