Run, Nigger, Run

African American artist Carrie Mae Weems often uses photography to investigate issues of race, gender, and history. A labor union organizer in San Francisco in the 1970s, Weems first used the medium to record protests and marches she attended. Influenced by Robert Frank and Roy DeCarava, she approached documentary photography as a way to not only express collective and individual experience, but also to challenge our perception of the medium. She often incorporates narratives and vernacular themes into her work to prompt new contexts and questions. For the diptych Run, Nigger, Run, Weems juxtaposes an image of a quiet southern landscape with sheet music for the old slave song titled “Run, Nigger, Run.” Sung by slaves in the 1800s, the song alludes to the terror of white men who patrolled plantations looking for fugitive slaves. Shown together, the photograph and text become a critique of slavery’s patterns of violence and escape.