Bianca Walker | Black Coffee

The paintings in the ‘Black Coffee’ exhibition are based on photographs taken by Brazilian photographer Marc Ferrez between 1882 and 1885 of coffee plantations in the Paraíba Valley. While Ferrez focused on making Brazil look like a cornerstone of world production, due to slavery, he minimized the people in the photographs presenting a “pacified slave”. The people enslaved in the photographs took their power through posing with their families and the gaze they laid upon the photographer. Walker brings this power into the “Black Coffee” paintings.