Dust Shaped Hearts - A Vision of Blues

In 1993, photographer Donald E. Camp started work on a series of photographic works titled Dust Shaped Hearts. The project was intended to be a sardonic statement about news reports of the threatened “extinction of the Black American male.” Drawing upon his experience as a photojournalist, this talk will explore how he re-defined the “newspaper headshot,” in order to go beyond stereotype and give thoughtful attention and permanence to the men he photographed. He chose to modify a 19th century casein and pigment process using earth (pigment) and milk (casein) as metaphor for the male and female. Combining these organic materials to make images parallels his observation that basic photography is biological, not mechanical.