The Brown Man Experience

This work seeks to give a positive voice to men of color and empower them to confront and shift constructed racial perceptions. The process involved re-contextualizes aspects of law enforcement as its starting point. Men of color are publicly singled out, not to be “stopped and frisked” but rather to be “approached and interviewed.” Each person is asked to write something about himself on a small dry erase board and then is photographed holding it against his chest. The rounded corners of the white board and handwritten, self-defining statements act as a strong symbolic contrast to the square, black police mug shot board, containing numbers rather than a name.