Nona Faustine
(American, 1977–2025)
Negro Burying Ground, Elmendorf Reformed Church, Harlem 1666–1869
Object Details
Artist
Nona Faustine
Date
2016
Medium
Inkjet print
Dimensions
Frame: 27 1/4 × 40 11/16 × 1 1/2 inches (69.2 × 103.3 × 3.8 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired through the generosity of Deborah Goodman Davis, Class of 1985, and Gerald R. Davis, Class of 1984
Object
Number
2020.047
For a decade, Nona Faustine photographed herself at New York City sites with historical links to sla(…)
For a decade, Nona Faustine photographed herself at New York City sites with historical links to slavery: on burial grounds, at slave auction sites, in front of halls of power. These photographs form her series White Shoes. Always the lone figure in the frame, always naked or nearly naked save for a pair of white pumps—a symbol of heteronormative, white femininity—Faustine demands visibility for herself and her ancestors and compels viewers to recognize the centrality of Black people in New York’s layered histories.
Here, Faustine stands at New York City’s decommissioned 126th Street bus depot. For more than two centuries, both free and enslaved New Yorkers of African descent were buried on this site. Work is underway to uncover the remains still buried here, dignify the site with a memorial, and transform it into a public space that will serve the surrounding community of Harlem.
—Kate Addleman-Frankel, the Gary and Ellen Davis Curator of Photography
