Young man wearing a maternity bust (from the Makonde)

Intimacy and gestures of self-fashioning are hallmarks of Edmonds’s photographs. He frequently uses African sculptures as props held by his models or as the sole subjects of the work. The standard practice in Western art museums is to photograph the objects in their collections as neutrally as possible, against a simple gradient backdrop, with even lighting, and no additional context. Edmonds’s photographs of African sculpture, replete with dramatic lighting and decorative backdrops, remind viewers that no presentation of African sculpture in a Western art museum can ever be neutral.

Young man wearing a maternity bust features a Makonde (East African) fertility bust, which is similar to a Gelede (Yoruba) maternity bust in the Allen’s collection. Both are worn and danced in male societies to channel feminine wisdom and power. Edmonds—who is initiated into the Akan religion—connects these African and Black American contexts. The model’s slender arm and concealed Adam’s apple emphasize the object’s intended function of transcending a binary notion of gender.