2. Sheila Pree Bright, Untitled # 5, from the Suburbia series

2. Sheila Pree Bright, Untitled # 5, from the Suburbia series

2005, chromogenic print, 24 x 30 inches
[courtesy of the artist and the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art]

In Untitled #5, from the Suburbia series, Bright gives us a glimpse of the hand and upper torso of a black woman in front of a mirror on an elegant vanity, a site traditionally visited at the beginning and end of a woman’s day. Crystal cosmetic containers, a fine bejeweled watch, and fancy perfume are laid out on the wooden furnishings, and the woman pictured has manicured nails and wears a satin gown—all of which evokes an environment of domestic comfort, and of luxury. Yet the scene also evinces solitude, and a sense of melancholy. In Suburbia Bright provides a counternarrative to media representations of African American class levels and everyday lives.

—Camille Ragland