Maxine Walker (born 1962) is a British-Jamaican photographer and critic. Based in Handsworth and active between 1985 and 1997, Walker has been described by Rianna Jade Parker as "a force within the Black British Art movement".[1] Her photographs emphasise the fictive nature of documentary convention, and "raise questions about the nature of identity, challenging racial stereotypes".[2]

Life

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Maxine Walker was born in 1962 in Birmingham.[3]

Walker's 1987 series Auntie Lindie's House challenged the unmediated nature of documentary photography, replicating photographic conventions within a fictional context. Black Beauty, a 1980s series, and Untitled, a series for the 1995 Self Evident exhibition, both consisted of self-portraits.[2] Untitled contained a sequence of ten closely-cropped black and white photographs, in which Walker appeared to peel away successive layers of her surface skin.[4]

Walker has written various reviews and texts for art magazines and exhibition-related publication.[5] After Polareyes, a 1987 exhibition of black women photographers at the Camden Arts Centre, she co-edited and contributed to a short-lived journal of the same name. In 1999 she published a short artist's book in the series published by Autograph.[6]

Works

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Exhibitions

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Writing

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  • "Boxed Gems". Polareyes: A Journal by and about Black Women working in photography. 1: 42–43. 1987.
  • "We do not Wish to do it Quietly". Ten.8. 27: 42–45.
  • "Testimony: Three Black Women Photographers". Creative Camera. 4: 34. 1987.
  • "Beauty and the Beast: Have Images of Black Women in the Media Changed over the Years?". Blackboard Review. 2: 12–13. 1990.
  • 'Intimate Distance', in Jo Spence; Patricia Holland, eds. (1991). Family Snaps. London: Virago. pp. 222–225.
  • Mark Sealy, ed. (1999). Maxine Walker: Monograph. Autograph. ISBN 1899282505.

References

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  1. ^ Rianna Jade Parker (19 August 2019). "How British-Jamaican Photographer Maxine Walker Disrupted the Idea of an Approved Womanhood". frieze. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  3. ^ Barnwell, Andrea D. (2002). "Walker, Maxine". In Alison Donnell (ed.). Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture. Routledge. p. 319. ISBN 978-1-134-70025-7.
  4. ^ a b "Maxine Walker: Untitled". Autograph. 2019.
  5. ^ Melanie Keen; Liz Ward, eds. (1996). Recordings: A Select Bibliography of Contemporary African, Afro-Caribbean and Asian British Art. inIVA in collaboration with the Chelsea College of Art and Design. p. 108. ISBN 1899846069.
  6. ^ Maxine Walker (1999). Mark Sealy (ed.). Maxine Walker: Monograph. Autograph. ISBN 1899282505.
  7. ^ "Intimate Distance: Five Female Artists". The Photographers’ Gallery. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  8. ^ Martina Attille (November–December 1995). "Scared of you: Martina Attille on Self Evident". Women's Art Magazine. 67.
  9. ^ "Maxine Walker: Untitled". What's On: Birmingham. 25 February 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2022.

Further reading

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  • Joy Gregory (1987). "Fantasy: Joy Gregory Speaking to Maxine Walker". Polareyes. 1: 18–19.
  • "Portfolio: Maxine Walker". Creative Camera. 8/9: 42–43. 1987.
  • Gilane Tawadros (Spring 1992). "Redrawing the Boundaries: the Documentary work of David Lewis and Maxine Walker". Ten.8. 2 (3): 86–92.
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