Wura-Natasha Ogunji

From the series: a short history/of the black female nude/as told by herself

“In this series I was thinking about the following questions: (1) Can you remember a photograph that has not been taken? (2) Can you have a photographic memory of an event that has not occurred?   To use the phrase ‘photographic memory’ suggests a degree of precision and exactitude.  In my creative process I make pictures that question the notion of the photograph’s accuracy as historical document.  Though the works are fiction they emerge from truths and serve to document.  I want to create photographic memory (of the black female nude) where there is none (in the traditional photographic canon.)

This series begins with self-portraits I make on the copy machine.  However, the resulting images are not mere reproductions of my form.  The flattening and blurring of my body across the glass results in copies that rarely resemble me.  In this way I am able to represent a multiplicity of black female nudes.  At the same time the blackness of the nude is rarely black.   It often appears as silver highlights, scratches or blurs. I envision the black female nude to be a character who travels through time in a non-linear fashion as she chronicles events suggested by the titles.  It is my hope that the coupling of the titles with the images will create another story in the mind of the viewers.  I believe that history is a creative act that brings stories into existence.  This body of work is at once a fiction and a truth.”

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