Carrie Mae Weems: The Hampton Project

One Hundred Years of Difference brings together photographs from Frances B. Johnston's stunning Hampton Album of 1900 with a related series of new images by renowned contemporary artist Carrie Mae Weems.

Johnston's portrayal of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, founded in 1868 in Virginia for the education of "selected Negro youths" and displaced Native Americans, is a thought-provoking historical album. Weems, known for her savvy and ironic view of race struggle in America, illustrates the "one hundred years of difference" with a new series of photographic banners, shaped in direct response to Johnston's images and to life at Hampton University today. This remarkable book examines the work of two women, distanced by time and race yet joined by their shared interest in a unique educational experience.

One Hundred Years of Difference includes an interview with Weems, as well as essays by Deborah Willis (curator for the Center for African-American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution) and Jeanne Zeidler (director of the Museum of Art at Hampton University), among others. An accompanying exhibition opened at the Williams College Museum of Art in March 2000 and will travel to venues throughout the United States.

Since 1980, Carrie Mae Weems's photographs and installations have been exhibited widely in the United States and abroad in nearly fifty one-person shows and numerous group exhibitions. She lives in Syracuse, New York.