My Name is My Name I

Texas Isaiah My Name is My Name I, 2016 Giclée print on archival paper 20 × 30 in. The Studio Museum in Harlem; Museum purchase with funds provided by Pippa Cohen   2017.47

Photographer Texas Isaiah documents the complex intersections of identity, place, and personal or communal histories. His portraits, often set in interior spaces, are at once empowering and intimate. In My Name is My Name I, the dramatic use of light and shadow, along with the subject’s carefully composed body, lend a performative aspect to the work. Texas Isaiah opens his practice to counteract the historically misunderstood depiction of Black subjects in photography. The resulting works are poetic, gender-expansive presentations composed with palpable tenderness and care.