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A Glimpse of Our World as It Could Be
How this dreamy photograph shows us that pleasure is a right
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Summer Azure, negative 2020; print 2021, Tourmaline. Dye sublimation print, 74.9 x 76.2 cm. Getty Museum. © Tourmaline
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One of artists' great powers is that they can call our attention to things we might otherwise overlook.
But for Mazie Harris, assistant curator of photographs at the Getty Museum, the dreamy Afrofuturist photograph Summer Azure, by Tourmaline, draws her attention because it "uses imagination to show our world not as it is, but as it could be," Harris notes.
In the first season of Getty's Close Looking video series, Getty curators explore the details of artworks they cherish. For this installment, Harris explores how Tourmaline's photograph, which depicts the artist floating above the trees against an idyllic sky, argues that Black, queer, and trans communities don't just have to be advocates for social change; they can enjoy pleasure as well and float above the concerns of the world. Harris also dives in to the photograph's reference to 19th-century pleasure gardens, and how photographers and Afrofuturists aren't necessarily bound by daily experiences, but use daily experience as a catalyst to give us new perspective on our own lives.
Watch the video below!
