Ming Smith: August Moon

Ming Smith: August Moon unveils the essence of everyday Black life unfolds with breathtaking honesty and reverence. Smith embarks on a poignant journey through the streets of Pittsburgh’s Hill District, intimately familiarizing herself with the landscape that inspired playwright August Wilson’s iconic Century Cycle plays. Smith captures the spirit of Wilson’s characters, immortalizing their struggles, triumphs, and the quiet resilience that defines their existence.

Smith’s upbringing in a literary family fostered an immediate affinity for Wilson’s subtle metaphors and characters, many of whom mirrored the people she knew from her own childhood. With deliberate use of blurred imagery and obscured details, Smith creates a visual language that reflects the complexities of Black life in America, inviting viewers to see beyond the surface.

Through her photographs, Smith documents the fortitude and fragility of Black communities, built amidst the challenges of Jim Crow laws, redlining, and everyday racism. As Smith traverses the streets of the Hill District, she captures moments of daily life that resonate with the themes of Wilson’s plays. From the camaraderie of pool players to the solitude of Aunt Ester in her fur and knitted hats, Smith’s photographs speak volumes about the strength and humanity of Black community.

August Moon is a visual journey that celebrates the richness of Black life and the enduring legacy of August Wilson’s storytelling. Through Smith’s lens, viewers are invited to immerse themselves in the beauty and complexity of ordinary Black existence.

This exhibition is part of a simultaneous presentation of work by Ming Smith, also at the Wexner Center for the Arts and The Gund at Kenyon College.