Dayton Upchurch

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We were to create a portrait of a person without showing their face. Earlier in the day, I visited the museum of natural history where I saw a small part of the museum displaying the dress of Arab women, however it basically only showed burkas. I discussed it with my friend Miriam who told me that what they displayed is not at all indicative of Arab women’s clothing. In my photo I wanted to comment on that sort of misrepresentation in the museum, as overall I found the museum to be outdated and distasteful in many of its displays. I chose to light the photograph with flash and shoot in black and white to clearly highlight the eyes and face of my friend while also creating a lot of negative space with the black and white portions of the textile.