Cover image: Monique Y. Wells, Bayeté Ross Smith, and Alicia Smith
© Entrée to Black Paris

Our Kind of People is a fine art photography exhibition that is being shown at the Musée National Eugène-Delacroix as part of the PhotoSaintGermain festival in Paris.

It showcases the work of Bayeté Ross Smith, a multidisciplinary artist, photographer, visual journalist, and filmmaker whose creative practice focuses on concepts of identity and community.

Bayeté Ross Smith, 2022
© Christopher Michel

Our Kind of People Ross Smith has created multiple photographic series over the years, and works from three of them are included in this show.  The exhibition takes its name from an on-going series (2010 - present) of work through which the artist "examines how perception about someone’s identity, value, and character is affected by appearance – such as clothing, race/ ethnicity, gender, complexion and class signifiers – and how that then informs our daily interactions and social systems."

Serendipitously, Ross Smith's work invites visitors to the museum to ponder this concept at the same time they consider the works displayed in a temporary Delacroix exhibition called States of (Un)Dress: Delacroix and Clothing. 

Because I was one of the first to arrive at the Our Kind of People opening that Wednesday evening, I had the opportunity to see the works displayed with little interference.

Selected works in museum apartment rooms
© Entrée to Black Paris

I "made my rounds" of the rooms in the main area of the museum (Delacroix's apartment) and was about to go out to the atelier when I encountered a Black woman who enthusiastically engaged me in conversation.  She turned out to be the artist's mother!

Alicia Smith introduced herself and excitedly began to share stories of incidents that inspired Ross Smith to create some of the works in the exhibition.

Ross Smith appeared a few minutes later, deeply engaged in conversation with people I assumed to be journalists. 

When there was a lull in their conversation, Ms. Smith introduced the two of us, and one of the men Ross Smith had been speaking with kindly took our picture.

Monique Y. Wells, Bayeté Ross Smith, and Alicia Smith
© Entrée to Black Paris

Ms. Smith then asked me whether I had looked at the catalog on display in the room.  I had not.

Exhibition catalog
© Entrée to Black Paris

She left me alone to peruse the book, which gives details about the various photo series from which the works for Our Kind of People were selected.

In it, I found an image of a portrait of a young Ross Smith superimposed with the tracings of a target for shooting practice. 

Exhibition catalog - Post-Racial Little Boy
(Image of a young Bayeté Ross Smith)
© Entrée to Black Paris

Ross Smith had included his own image in his series entitled Taking AIM, through which he examines the question of who is perceived as a victim versus who is perceived as a threat and how that perception increases or decreases someone's chances of becoming involved in interpersonal violence.

Ross Smith used his photo in the series to emphasize how Black youth, particularly Black male youth, are treated as adults and become targets for racially-motivated violence from an early age.

Prior to getting our photo taken, Ms. Smith had told me this story and shared how shaken she had been when she saw that her son selected this image for the series.  She mentioned that she did not know whether the image appeared in the catalog, so I called her over and showed it to her.

We then parted ways, and I visited the atelier section of the museum to see what works from Our Kind of People were displayed there.

Foyer of museum atelier
© Entrée to Black Paris

While I was there, Ross Smith and a videographer entered the foyer.  Ross Smith gave a brief explanation of his photo series called Mirrors Face to Face while standing in front of one of the two works from the series that are displayed in this room.

Ross Smith being interviewed in museum atelier
© Entrée to Black Paris

Delacroix's atelier is much smaller than the main section of the museum, so I was quickly able to ascertain that the two Mirrors works in the foyer were the only ones from Our Kind of People in this part of the facility.

I went back to the main building and once again found Ross Smith giving an explanation of one of his photo series.

This time, he spoke about Taking AIM.

Ross Smith talks about Taking AIM
© Entrée to Black Paris

The total number of works in the Our Kind of People exhibition at the Delacroix Museum is nine.  This show will be on display through February 3, 2025.

VISITOR INFORMATION
 Ticket prices: €9, grants general museum admission (free for eligible visitors)
 Free for PhotoSaintGermain map holders (strictly from 30 October to 18 November 2024)

Musée National Eugène-Delacroix
6 Rue de Furstemberg
75006 Paris
Metro: Saint-Germain-des-Prés (Line 4) and Mabillon (Line 10)

This show is part of a larger exhibition called Bayeté Ross Smith: Beyond Appearances, which has been mounted by the Centre de la Photographie de Mougins in the Côte d'Azur village of Mougins.

Beyond Appearances is the second part of an African-American trilogy of exhibitions hosted by the center in Mougins. It follows the exhibition Stephen Shames: Comrade Sisters / Women of the Black Panther Party* and will be followed in the summer of 2025 by Kwame Brathwaite: Black is Beautiful.  It will run through February 9, 2025.

Centre de la Photographie de Mougins
43, rue de l'Eglise
06250 Mougins

*The exhibition catalog on display at the Delacroix Museum also contains information and images from Stephen Shames: Comrade Sisters / Women of the Black Panther Party.