Student photo project recreates famous images of African-Americans in history

Sha'Air Hawkins and Tianna Wynn recreate photographs of famous African-Americans in both history and the arts. They hope to highlight famous African-Americans who are not as well known such as Eartha Kitt, a famous singer and cabaret performer during the 1950s. Photographer Hawkins poses for this recreation (Photo courtesy of Sha'Air Hawkins).

Lights are pointed onto empty seats. A black drop cloth is in the background. As Sha’Air Hawkins tries out different angles for a shot, Tianna Wynn stares at the photo of Marvin Gaye on her phone, trying to mimic his pose to better direct the model. 

Here is the scene that is laid in front of me while model, Rasheed Parker, tries to embody Marvin Gaye. Recreating famous photographs of African Americans from history is a project that Hawkins and Wynn have been planning for some time.

“We were talking last semester and Tianna actually came up with the idea. She was like, ‘What if we re-made pictures or something?’ And then we did it,” Hawkins said. “Over the break, we really started developing what we wanted to do and Tianna was looking up pictures. We would send each other pictures and Google them.”

So far they have recreated a photo of Alice Walker, who is best known as the author of "The Color Purple."

They have also recreated photographs of iconic singer-songwriter, Marvin Gaye, and of Dorothy Dandridge, an actress and singer who was the first black woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

These specific people were chosen not only for their historical importance, but because they are also the subjects of well-known photos, according to Hawkins and Wynn. These photographs can be easily recreated with minimal props and backgrounds.

“We try to do the most when they are posing, because if the outfit is not 100 percent correct the pose can give it away,” Hawkins said. The poses, although not very involved, take a while for the models to mimic; even the simplest of poses takes time to replicate.

“The Dorothy Dandridge photo literally looks

Hawkins and Wynn's recreation of actress Dorthy Dandridge who was the first Black woman to receive an Academy Award (Photo courtesy of Sha'Air Hawkins).

like she just has her hand on her hip and she is looking back, but when you take the pictures and you’re looking at it, it’s just, like, nope,” Wynn explained. Although initially Wynn and Hawkins thought it would be easy to shoot the photos in less than thirty minutes, they have found that the process isn’t always so quick .

“Yeah, Dorothy Dandridge? That was, like, an hour shoot,” Hawkins said.

Recreating men from history proves to be even more of a challenge due to changes in hairstyle, clothing and facial hair.

“Guys are a little bit harder, because the styling is so different that it’s harder to replicate,” Wynn said.

The duo plans to shoot the “Greensboro Four,” a famous photo capturing a historic peace protest that took place at a diner during the Civil Rights movement during the 1960s. Their plan is to shoot this reenactment at Ike’s, the late-night dining option at George Mason University. Hawkins and Wynn find that this location will make modeling easier for the men, because these models do not have to have beards or hairstyles that match exactly. Both Hawkins and Wynn see famous photos from events or movements as more difficult to capture because the background is often difficult to match.

“The more iconic pictures are in front of things that you are not going to be able to replicate easily. Whatever picture I can find that has the most content to it and is the most inspiring, that’s the one we will go for,” Wynn added.

Wynn and Hawkins must also consider what time the models are available to do the shoots and who the models look like, as well as what costumes are available. Generally they look for photos where the costume is something the average college student may already own such as sweaters, single-color dresses or t-shirts.

Hawkins also tries to feature individuals from history who are not commonly heard of today. She wants to explore different, important people in African American history, not just those seen in textbooks.

“Sometimes I like to choose pictures that [people] haven’t seen before of famous people … or choose somebody that isn’t that famous in black history,” Hawkins said. “Everyone knows Dr. Martin Luther King, so we weren’t going to do Dr. Martin Luther King. We were going to try to showcase somebody else who’s impacted our history.”

Wynn and Hawkins want to highlight “someone who is important but might have been forgotten,” Wynn said.

Hawkins and Wynn recreate a photograph of the famous poet Langston Hughes (photo courtesty of Sha'Air Hawkins).

Hawkins and Wynn are planning on recreating photos of poet Langston Hughes and the first African American international pilot Bessie Coleman. 

“We have Bessie Coleman coming up if we can find the costume,” Wynn said.  Costuming for this photo will be a challenge, because old fashioned pilot’s hats are not readily available. The process is just part of growing the project, as Hawkins and Wynn have started to take on more challenging photo shoots to help expand the project.

As the project has gained momentum, interest has grown.

 “A lot of people don’t know who they want to be, so that doesn’t really help,” Hawkins said.  The photographers' process of selecting and asking people to participate has often been sparked by seeing a photo and knowing someone who could model it.

Initially the project was going to be published on the picture-sharing application, Instagram.  “We’d just shoot it and [Hawkins] would put it up on Instagram. Then people were commenting on it and people wanted to be a part of it so, that’s how we got some interest in it and reached out to some people,” Wynn said.

The photos will now also be published on Hawkins website: ww.takewithoutbreakingstudios.com. 

“When we get five [pictures] I am going to dedicate a section to it,” Hawkins said. “My website is something I created, because I do a lot of different things in different art venues, so I compiled it all together on a website for people to see.”

Although the idea was initially only intended to take place in February, the duo would like to see it continue to grow and perhaps adapt it to future highlights like Women’s History Month which takes place in March.