Note: This exhibition is part of the Northeast Regional Society of Photographic Education Conference, held November 1 – 3, 2012

“Pitch Man is an exhibition of multimedia artist and conceptual photographer Hank Willis Thomas’s selected works that deconstruct advertising iconography of– and directed toward– the black male. In our selection, we chose to focus on black men– not in comparison to any other group, but as a distinct entity that occupies a complicated place within popular culture, as well as a significant place within Thomas’ expansive practice. The title is also a play on the title of Thomas’ stunning 2009 monograph, Pitch Blackness (Aperture), which is itself a reference to the selling of race and black male identity. Through his manipulations and reconfigurations of images that we have consumed regularly for decades, Thomas casts himself as a twenty-first century ‘pitch man,’ though instead of sneakers or alcohol, he’s selling a pointed critique of branding and complicity that requires the viewer to honestly examine his or her own ideals and beliefs — and consumption patterns — based on desire, race, and marketing.

By removing the copy from the original advertisements, or by extending the recognizable ‘pitch men’ figurations of Michael Jordon, Uncle Ben, and Johnny Walker and giving them new identities to try to sell them, Thomas recasts these subjects as critical scenarios. In doing so, he requires the images to stand on their own without the persuasive language meant to seduce, entice, and ultimately, distract consumers in order to sell products. At best, the advertising copy simply tells us what we are seeing rather than allowing us to look; at worst, it obfuscates problematic representations by insinuating that what we think we see is not necessarily true. By stripping it away, Thomas forces us to trust our eyes and our rather sophisticated knowledge of how images communicate in order to see what is there before us.

The works in this exhibition span more than nine years; Thomas continues to investigate the nuances of this imagery as, in many instances, popular culture is becoming more regressive and reactionary in response to cultural critique and as part of the backlash against so-called ‘correctness.’ In his ongoing negotiation of meaning, Thomas reminds us that understanding is fluid and ever open to interpretation and that, as consumers, our power lies in allowing ourselves to be persuaded. With this selection of Thomas’ work, the act of persuasion is stripped bare to reveal the range of representations of the black male subject in American advertising.”

– Oscar Palacio and Carla Williams, guest curators

This exhibition has been supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts Visual Arts Program.