FOUND

Found is an archive of photographs of Black women—discovered at flea markets, on Etsy, buried in family collections, and more. Our purpose for collecting these is to preserve and document the lives of Black women, especially through vernacular photographs which have been separated from their original owners and subjects. As we approach this archival work, we continually wrestle with questions of ownership and publication and recognize the history of exploitation of Black bodies—on film, online, and in real life.

Whenever come across a photo and cannot identify the subject, we honor her by giving her a name. Because the Transatlantic Slave Trade robbed our ancestors and descendants of language, cultural heritage, family members and their given names, it is of vital importance for us to proclaim the humanity of every woman we encounter.

Black women are as vast as the ocean, too deep and wide to solely exist in the container that is our digital world. Therefore, we work with physical and digital copies of photos and remember the time before camera phones, embracing the sacred and lost sensation of holding a picture, feeling the gloss and edges, taking in the energetic imprint of the woman whose image is captured on film.