What’s My Name presents the photographer’s portraits alongside his archival family photographs to share a story about Black American family life
In the age of digital photography, physical photo albums are increasingly precious relics – not just as photographic resources but also, crucially, as documents of memory. And, like memory, photography can be wonderfully subjective. Family photograph albums allow us to trace the accumulation of stories and mytholgising that takes place in all families. They also enable us to fill in the blanks, immortalising particular memories as well as, in many ways, creating and shaping the stories we perpetuate about our selves and our pasts...
Micaiah Carter’s latest photo book, What’s My Name [published by Prestel] is inspired by his family and draws on the wealth of family photograph albums that have fascinated Carter since childhood. In among his own work – which blends fine art, street photography and fashion photography – the Brooklyn and Los Angeles-based image-maker has interspersed the book with photographs from his family archive. Pictures taken by his father over several decades sit side-by-side with Carter’s contemporary portraits.
The result is a beautiful meditation on family, love, Blackness, memory, style, and American life, in which the past and the present occupy the same shared space on the page. What’s My Name invites us to draw comparisons and create connections between generations, while compelling us to think about our own past – the stories we preserve that make our histories legible to us and the loved ones who’ve shaped the unique culture of our own families.
Below, we talk to Carter about composing his new book, the importance of family photograph albums, and the important narratives that emerge from What’s My Name.
I wonder if you could begin by telling us about how the idea for this book germinated in your mind, and what the initial inspiration was?
Micaiah Carter: I’ve always wanted to do a book honouring my family legacy with my own photos and when Prestel reached out it felt like the perfect opportunity to do so. My family album has inspired me since I was a child and I really wanted to make something that expresses those serendipitous moments and the juxtaposition of the influence it had on my own works.
Please can you tell us more about the influence of your family albums and how they’ve informed not only this project but your wider practice?
Micaiah Carter: I love the essence of family albums, especially with Black families in America. With so much of our ancestry being unknown, the family album gives a guide to understanding yourself. That’s what it did for me, it showed me humanity in a delicate way. Also, just the styles and decades that exist in a family album really makes you feel like a time traveler; that also inspires me.
What period of time do the collected images in the book span? What stories do they tell about Black American life throughout this period?
Micaiah Carter: It features photos from the 50s to the 00s. They show history through the mundane. They tell the stories of women and men who didn’t care to have their stories told but to provide for their families, to love, to laugh, to experience.
“Photography holds a great power. It gives space for the past and present to merge” – Micaiah Carter
In what ways do you think the early influence of family albums have influenced your own approach to image-making? And your way of perceiving the world in a wider sense?
Micaiah Carter: It gives me context of humanity. Being the youngest of my brothers, I never got to meet a lot of family. I got to understand who they were from the photos and the stories. Those moments made me realise that photography holds great power. It gives space for the past and present to merge, I think that is very inspirational. Growing up, it gave me pride to know where I came from and to have images to back it up – even when it comes to how you look, it was amazing to see the genetic lineage and what traits have been passed down.
What was the guiding principle for you when putting the book together?
Micaiah Carter: The guiding principle was simply showing those subsequent generational curiosities that subconsciously showed up in my work, inspired by my family album. It’s a monograph of people really seeing things through my perspective and seeing the influence that inspired that.
“The styles and decades that exist in a family album really makes you feel like a time traveler; that also inspires me” – Micaiah Carter
Please could you tell us about your decision to include your father’s pictures among your own? Why did that feel important? And how do you feel his pictures interact with your own?
Micaiah Carter: My dad was a huge inspiration to me, especially with the stories he told me. He traveled the world through the Air Force, and his photos inspired me – particularly the ones from the 70s. It felt important to include his images and images from my mother too because that is the base of my foundation to understand the world. His pictures interact because, in a way, we both have a similar eye, which I thought was very unique. Also because his passion for community is something that we share in common.
I always think your images are so abundantly beautiful, whether it be an everyday scene or something more staged. What does beauty mean to you as an artist?
Micaiah Carter: I find beauty in everything, from the smallest things to the supernatural. I believe it’s something I don’t search for, but appears to me. From someone who has a beautiful smile, to beauty in light, beauty in the mundane. I think it all comes from being appreciative of the world and of life itself since it’s so short.
What stories and recurring themes emerge from What’s My Name?
Micaiah Carter: I feel like family, community, Blackness and spirituality are recurring themes from the book. The overarching message is frankly for people to understand me a bit more. It gives insight to the things that inspire me, literally from the family photos, to the people that I photograph. I think the biggest message is Blackness and family and how community doesn’t just mean from your neighborhood but a wider sense of identity and inspiration.
Micaiah Carter’s What’s My Name is published Prestel and is available here.
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