{"id":5877,"date":"2024-09-06T08:39:56","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T12:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/?p=5877"},"modified":"2024-09-06T11:00:08","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T15:00:08","slug":"a-lens-on-representation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/2024\/a-lens-on-representation\/","title":{"rendered":"A Lens on Representation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

By Susanna Klingenberg<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When Samantha Everette \u201907 was studying industrial design, she picked up an issue of NC State<\/em> magazine on a lark\u2009. . .\u2009and it changed the course of her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the cover was Guy Marshall \u201990, then creative director at The Frye Company, the prestigious American shoe company. \u201cI thought, \u2018There\u2019s a Black man, an NC State alum, with my dream job,\u201d says Everette. \u201cHe\u2019s got to hire me!\u2019\u201d Determined, she emailed Marshall, asking him to speak to her design class. Impressed by her drive, Marshall made the visit and eventually did hire Everette, kicking off her career in shoe design and leading to a gig managing the design process for such shoe brands as Vince Camuto and Jessica Simpson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShoes are very technical, and design matters down to the millimeter of a curve or angle,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I made sure everything was just right, from drawing up to pre-production.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everette\u2019s eye for technical detail made photography a natural hobby, and as she split her time between New York City and Asia and traveled the world, she documented what she saw. Eventually, the medium captured her full attention, and she moved back to Durham to pursue photography more seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black women, we see our lives represented, but it\u2019s often alongside struggle\u2009. . .\u2009 not for who we are.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That passion was on display at Raleigh\u2019s Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) this summer in the form of \u201cCrowning Glory,\u201d an exhibit in which Everette explores the images of an exalted Black woman through the everyday ritual of hair braiding. The stunning photographs elevate a familiar practice into the realm of the sublime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are Renaissance paintings of women just lounging in a bed, exalted because they\u2019re courtesans or queens,\u201d explains Everette. \u201cBlack women, we see our lives represented, but it\u2019s often alongside struggle or the fight for civil rights, not for who we are. With these photographs, the message is \u2018Hey, beautiful Black women\u2009\u2014\u2009you exist, you\u2019re beautiful, and you deserve to be in a museum too.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n

By Susanna Klingenberg<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When Samantha Everette \u201907 was studying industrial design, she picked up an issue of NC State<\/em> magazine on a lark\u2009. . .\u2009and it changed the course of her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the cover was Guy Marshall \u201990, then creative director at The Frye Company, the prestigious American shoe company. \u201cI thought, \u2018There\u2019s a Black man, an NC State alum, with my dream job,\u201d says Everette. \u201cHe\u2019s got to hire me!\u2019\u201d Determined, she emailed Marshall, asking him to speak to her design class. Impressed by her drive, Marshall made the visit and eventually did hire Everette, kicking off her career in shoe design and leading to a gig managing the design process for such shoe brands as Vince Camuto and Jessica Simpson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShoes are very technical, and design matters down to the millimeter of a curve or angle,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I made sure everything was just right, from drawing up to pre-production.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everette\u2019s eye for technical detail made photography a natural hobby, and as she split her time between New York City and Asia and traveled the world, she documented what she saw. Eventually, the medium captured her full attention, and she moved back to Durham to pursue photography more seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black women, we see our lives represented, but it\u2019s often alongside struggle\u2009. . .\u2009 not for who we are.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That passion was on display at Raleigh\u2019s Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) this summer in the form of \u201cCrowning Glory,\u201d an exhibit in which Everette explores the images of an exalted Black woman through the everyday ritual of hair braiding. The stunning photographs elevate a familiar practice into the realm of the sublime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are Renaissance paintings of women just lounging in a bed, exalted because they\u2019re courtesans or queens,\u201d explains Everette. \u201cBlack women, we see our lives represented, but it\u2019s often alongside struggle or the fight for civil rights, not for who we are. With these photographs, the message is \u2018Hey, beautiful Black women\u2009\u2014\u2009you exist, you\u2019re beautiful, and you deserve to be in a museum too.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shoe designer turned photographer Samantha Everette \u201907 makes it a point to celebrate Blackness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"views\/single-immersive.blade.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-immersive-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"backgroundColor\":\"red_400\",\"displayCategoryID\":9,\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"Shoe designer turned photographer Samantha Everette \u201907 makes it a point to celebrate Blackness.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10,8,9],"tags":[1524,1520,1523,1519,1427,1521,1522],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-5877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-bets","category-class-act","category-newswire","category-stories","tag-contemporary-art-museum","tag-guy-marshall","tag-jessica-simpson","tag-samantha-everette","tag-susanna-klingenberg","tag-the-frye-company","tag-vince-camuto"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":9,"name":"Stories","slug":"stories","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":237,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5877"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5877"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5943,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5877\/revisions\/5943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5877"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=5877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}