Weems, Carrie Mae, 1953-

Photographer and artist Carrie Mae Weems was born on April 20, 1953 in Portland, Oregon to Myrlie and Carrie Weems. Weems graduated from the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia with her B.F.A. degree in 1981, and received her M.F.A. degree in photography from the University of California, San Diego in 1984. From 1984 to 1987, she participated in the graduate program in folklore at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 1984, Weems completed her first collection of photographs, text, and spoken word entitled,Family Pictures and Stories. Her next photographic series,Ain't Jokin', was completed in 1988. She went on to produceAmerican Iconsin 1989, andColored Peopleand theKitchen Table Seriesin 1990. Weems then created theSea Islands Series(1991-92),Slave CoastandAfrica Series(1993),From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried(1995-96),Who What When Where(1998),Ritual & Revolution(1998),Jefferson Suite(1999),Hampton Project(2000),May Days Long ForgottenandDreaming in Cuba(2002),The Louisiana Project(2003),Roaming(2006), and theMuseum Series, which she began in 2006. She also produced the video projectsComing Up for Air(2004),Italian Dreams(2006),Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment(2008), andAfro-Chic(2009), among others.

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