Dec. 6: What It Means To Wear A Mask

Dec. 6: Week in Photography

Your lens to the internet's most powerful photographs.

📸 MOST POWERFUL PHOTO OF THE WEEK 📸

Go Nakamura / Getty Images

This photo hit me hard this week. Captured by Go Nakamura, this frame of a healthcare worker holding a COVID-19 patient at a hospital in Houston highlights the intense human desire for the comfort of human touch, which has been denied to many of us for nine long months now.

There is a reciprocity to the hug that is important to see — especially for caregivers who have been battling on the front line for months despite shortages, despite burnout. This week, as we head into what may be a long dark winter as coronavirus cases continue to rise, don't forget to offer up as much compassion as you can.

📸For Your 👀 Only:

A Look At The Lagos Home Exhibition

Earlier this year, Durham, North Carolina–based photographer Cornell Watson was juggling a full-time job while raising a 2-year-old together with his wife. And then he was laid off.

Within months, however, he had grown his already successful side project in family photography into something much more. Now Watson’s work is being featured in national newspapers, and he is the recipient of an Alexia Grant for his personal work, a project called Behind the Mask. We were able to speak to him at his studio space about how he was able tuned a challenging year into opportunities to expand his portfolio and earn nationwide recognition for his work.

How did your photography career change this year?

I got laid off from my job on the Friday of Juneteenth. That following Monday I had a call with Durham magazine — they were looking for a photographer to do some freelance assignments. The first big assignment was photographing Keith Knight, the coproducer of the Woke series on Hulu. The most interesting part about that whole interaction was that it was one of his first times working with a Black photographer. The experience of being able to show up 100% ourselves, especially with all of the events of 2020, was a validation of the importance of representation. I photographed him and his family, and he called me back three weeks later and said that the Post was going to cover him for the show, and he wanted me to do the photographs.

That opened up the door to pitch the “Behind the Mask” project to the Washington Post. This then led to opportunities to cover the 2020 election for the Washington Post.

Cornell Watson

That leads us a bit more back to “Behind the Mask,” the project you’ve been working on this year. There's obviously a lot of thought behind these photos. How did that come around?

The Durham Arts Council asked me if I was interested in doing a solo exhibition. My relationship with them started in 2019 after I submitted some images to a callout for Durham’s 150th anniversary, which were then featured in the exhibition. For the exhibit I wanted to do something meaningful and impactful. I felt like this was an opportunity to use this platform to do something more.

This year has forced us all to bring the Black experience in America to the forefront of our day-to-day lives. The events of 2020, including but not limited to the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor and politicization of their lives and deaths, made me think about all of the things I had experienced over my life. I thought about how my mother bit her tongue every day to show up at work and perform at 1000% despite the racism she faced. I thought about how the schools are still segregated in my hometown and how they still produce excellence despite lacking the same resources that the majority-white high school has four miles away. I thought about days I came to work and wanted to cry after watching my brothers and sisters be killed at the hands of police, but instead smiling and working alongside people who are blissfully or willfully oblivious.

Cornell Watson

I thought about a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Maya Angelou — who did her own rendition of it — called “We Wear the Mask.” It ties into the fact that we are physically wearing a mask all the time because of the coronavirus, and then there's this other world where I’m wearing another mask that people can't see. The purpose of this project was to say all of these things that we don't have an opportunity to say in white spaces out of fear of compromising our safety, and this was that opportunity to say that and reflect.

I set up a page on my website asking people who were interested in this project to share their contact information and a little bit of their story of wearing the mask. One of the first concepts for a photograph and one of the last images I created was the drowning. This is my best friend, he has three Black boys. He told me that as he ages the reality of having “the talk” with kids is daunting. Telling them they can't play with toy guns in the front yard and how they have to act a certain way around people outside of the house because of stories like Tamir Rice and Emmett Till shouldn’t be an experience of fatherhood. I came up with a concept of him drowning, because that's how he was feeling as a Black father in America.

All of the images in the series are either based on personal experiences of being Black, or the experiences of the people and families I’m photographing. While some of the images reflect pieces of my experience being Black, not all of them are my story.

Cornell Watson

What do you think the impact of the grant will be on this project and your work?

One of the initial goals I had set out for the project was about diversity and making sure that these images represent the diversity of Blackness. It's hard to do that with 10 images, but one of the things that I think this grant will help with is getting a bigger reach.

With these images, I often started by thinking really big with no limitations, and then bringing it back down to what I could do with the resources that I had. Now, not having to worry so much about time and money, it allows me to again think big but not have to reduce it down to something based on resources. I plan to spend more time than I did last time thinking through concepts and ideas, and spend more time with individuals and families and digging deeper into these stories.

I’m excited. Sometimes you don't know what's going to come out of your own brain. I'm probably going to go down another rabbit hole next year, and I’m excited for that.

📸THE WEEK'S PHOTO STORIES FROM BUZZFEED NEWS 📸

This week, we took a look back at all the great photography we've seen this year, and came up with a book list that will surely help with holiday shopping — there are also a few print sales happening to support worthy causes. We're predicting chess sets to be popular; history proves the worldwide appeal of the game. Don't forget to check out the best photo stories from around the internet — these are stories that caught our eye and kept us thinking.

THESE PHOTOS OF PEOPLE PLAYING CHESS WILL MAKE YOU WANT IN ON THE GAME

Gordon Parks / The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

20 PHOTO BOOKS WE LOVED THIS YEAR

Ian Brown

ONE WEEK LEFT TO SUPPORT STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHERS WITH THIS PRINT SALE

Constanze Han

📸SOME HOPE 📸

Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa via AP

It's beginning to look like a winter wonderland, at least in Germany ❄️☃️

"That's it from us this time — see you next week!" —Kate and Pia

📝 This letter was edited and brought to you by the News Photo team. Kate Bubacz is the photo director based in New York and loves dogs. You can always reach us here.
💌 Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get BuzzFeed News in your inbox!

BuzzFeed, Inc.
111 E. 18th St.
New York, NY 10003
Unsubscribe

Show privacy notice and cookie policy.