Black Woman as Muse

Black Woman as Muse contains forty large-scale black and white photographs of African American women from all walks of life, posed and photographed in the style of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Photographer Jerry Taliaferro has selected these photographs from hundreds he has taken for more than two decades.

Curated By: Jerry Taliaferro

“My fascination with the artful photography of early Hollywood, which has long influenced me, led to the idea of portraying black women as objects of inspiration, more precisely as muses.”

“The primary objective of the BLACK WOMAN AS MUSE (MUSE) exhibition is a simple one. It is to move people to see in an instant the unique and special beauty of Black Women.”

– Jerry Taliaferro

For more than two decades Jerry Taliaferro has photographed hundreds of black women for the exhibition, Women of a New Tribe, touring since 2002. Since then, the collection of images has grown to include hundreds of powerful images. The constant flow of new imagery has transformed that exhibition into an incredible growing and evolving mosaic of the modern African American woman. From this collection, Taliaferro has selected images to showcase the unique and diverse beauty of the American Woman of African descent in Black Woman as Muse.