Redtree Times

I have mentioned my niece, Sarah Foster, here in the past for her exploits as a talented dancer and choreographer in NYC. But she has another form of her talent that showed itself recently in her day job with Foreign Affairs magazine. That is that of a video editor.  The coming March/April issue of the prestigious magazine deals with the issue of race and has images of  the faces from a group of people from all races all set against backdrops that match their skin tones.

Sarah produced  a very fine video for the magazine explaining the backstory behind these images, which is the work of  Brazilian photographer Angélica Dass.  She  an ongoing and open-ended project called Humanae which has her photographing people of all races from around the globe.   So far over 2500 subjects on five continents have participated.

All are photographed in exactly the same circumstances– the same distance, the same light and exposure.  She then matches the color from their nose to the Pantone color system, an international standard for color matching, and makes the backdrop that color.   She then labels each with the Pantone code and number.   The result is a wonderful and powerful examination of how we define race by colors that really don’t exist.

The video feature a telephone interview with Dass ( shown here on the left–she’s Pantone 7522 C) who explains her project.  The video is a great accompaniment to it, giving you a taste of many images.

Great work.  Well done, Sarah!!

For more info on Angélica Dass and the Humanae Project click here.