 "Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Kenneth Montague/The Wedge Collection")
 "Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Kenneth Montague/The Wedge Collection")
Great photographs reach beyond portrayal to become the subjects they depict.
This is the concept at the core of the current Nasher Museum of Art installation at Duke University — "Becoming: Photographs from the Wedge Collection."
Collected by Kenneth Montague, a dentist and curator, the 110 photographs were created by 60 photographers representative of the African Diaspora.
Montague founded Wedge Curatorial Projects in 1997, a Toronto-based gallery and African Diaspora art initiative.
"The unexpected truth is what draws me to photographic art," Montague writes on the Wedge Gallery website.
Montague will discuss his collection in conversation with Trevor Schoonmaker, Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art, at the Nasher Museum Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. The event is free.
The installation features photographs taken throughout the African Diaspora, a term used to designate the movement of Africans across the globe.
Subjects are presented in truthful, unabashed photographic depiction.
A Jamel Shabazz image of a young man walking the streets of New York dressed in a blue suit.
A James VanDerZee portrait of artist Jean–Michel Basquiat staring straight into the camera as if to say, ‘this is my life and I am living it.'
In all there's 110 striking images of truth from around the world.
A focal point of the exhibit is the work of New York photographer Shabazz. Situated in a central gallery space, one side black and white prints and the other side full color, Shabazz's photographs chronicle confident New York residents in the splendor of their normalcy.
"Photography is essentially a way of life for me," said Shabazz.
"I embraced it over 35 years ago with the basic idea to create a visual diary and my friends and schoolmates became my first subjects."
Shabazz is known for documenting urban life and the rise of Hip–Hop culture. He practices a direct approach and prefers to use available light.
The subjects speak for themselves in the images Shabazz creates, in part because he allows them to be just that, themselves.
"The subjects I usually capture really have no preparation time," said Shabazz.
"Everything I do takes no more than about three minutes and I start with a basic introduction, explain my purpose, I then make my image."
"Becoming: Photographs from the Wedge Collection" will show through this January 8.
The Nasher Museum of Art is located on the central campus of Duke University at 2001 Campus Drive in Durham. Regular adult admission is $5 and is free on Thursdays from 5 to 9 p.m.Images of the African diaspora
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