Sisters Bailey and Melette
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Object Details
Artist/Maker
Clarissa Sligh, American, born 1939
Date
undated
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Please contact the Museum for more information
Credit
Gift of The National Millennium Survey organized by The College of Santa Fe and the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego
Accession #
2005.172
Description
A photographer, bookmaker, and installation artist, Clarissa Sligh considers herself first and foremost a storyteller. After earning her bachelor’s in mathematics at Virginia’s Hampton Institute, she pursued a degree in art at Howard University, followed by an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Before devoting herself full time to art, she worked on NASA’s manned space flight program. This photograph shows two members of a Black church in Richmond, Virginia, that had been set on fire in 1996 in an act of racial terror. Although devastated, the congregants felt it was more important than ever to rebuild the church, both physically and spiritually.