Carrie Mae Weem's photography exhibit questions stereotypes associated with Blackness

Carrie Mae Weems photograph, “All the Boys (Profile 1),” 2016. Archival pigment mounted on gesso board. (Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery.)

The overwhelming numbers of deaths of Black people at the hands of police are staggering. In response, the artist Carrie Mae Weems asks viewers to witness Black humanity with clarity and conscience. An exhibition of her recent work in photography and video art, “The Usual Suspects,” is on view at the Georgia Museum of Art through Aug. 7, and its images of Black Americans bring into question stereotypes that associate Blackness with criminality.

Shawnya L. Harris is the Georgia Museum’s curator of African-American and African Diasporic art, and she joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom to talk about the exhibition.

Interview highlights follow below.