"Ser's Reflection"

Faith Couch is a photographer from Durham, North Carolina, and a graduate of the Maryland Institute of Art. She was most recently recognized in the 2021 Forbes 30 Under #0 list for art and style. Her work has been shown at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Nasher Museum in Durham, North Carolina, and New Image Gallery in LA among others. Couch’s photographs express love and intimacy as part of the Black experience with a focus on the body as a terrain. The work reminds viewers of Black life being free of temporal and spatial boundaries.

The CAPP Committee’s decision to purchase two of her works; Ser’s Reflection and Then I remembered the most radical thing Black people can do- continue to love each other was made in connection to our goal of providing the UMD community with works that foster both intra- and interpersonal discussion. The pieces belong to different series, but offer the viewer two perspectives on the intimacies of life and shared memory within the Black experience. Then I remembered… alludes to archival imagery of Black people in their daily life from the 1950s and ‘60s while drawing attention to small gestures of amity and understanding. The actions and feelings of the subjects, which include Couch herself, are not completely accessible to the viewer, making them voyeurs into a space dominated through anonymity. Ser’s Reflection is another iteration of power in a moment of vulnerability. The subject’s face is obscured while the body’s action is frozen, giving the viewer a vicarious experience. Both of these images reject the negative generalization that Black people are depicted in throughout mass media. Couch denies viewers from their ability to co-opt the work through the objectification of her subject’s bodies, creating a space for them to be depicted in their essence.

Faith Couch

2021