JM: At what stage in the process of creating White Shoes did you start to receive serious interest from curators, critics, scholars, dealers, etc.? How did the feedback affect your process?
NF: Once my work went viral in 2015, after a Huffington Post article, and then a popular blogger reposted it – Black Girl with Long Hair – it opened my work up to many critics, curators and scholars. I never let the feedback affect my work.
JM: How do you feel about the discussions that have developed around White Shoes?
NF: That’s a funny question to me because I don’t know all the discussions being had, so it’s hard for me to answer. The reviews I’ve read or discussions that I have had, I’m often surprised how the work has affected people and I am touched and overwhelmed when it goes beyond my imagination of what I had hoped in creating the series. That people understand what I’m trying to convey in using the power of image making is beyond what any artist can ask for.
JM: Do you feel that the work is being digested and circulated in a way that holds true to your artistic intentions?
NF: Mostly yes, though I feel it’s still too early for me to answer that question. I will certainly continue to fight for my vision of the series and call it out when it does not feel right. My greatest wish is that it would protect these African American sites, many of which are still under threat not only in NYC but around the country. Like the cemetery in Corona Queens, Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn.
JM: What are some aspects that you would like to correct in regards to the developing discourse around you as an artist and this body of work?
NF: Mostly I don’t like the way Google collects images from Artists. I can’t control the way the images are circulated and used. Emerging Artists have to promote themselves and give interviews about their work but then some other entity encroaches on that without my permission.
JM: What are your expectations now that White Shoes is out in the world in book format?
NF: I just hope that the message goes as far as it can, and reaches as many people as possible and moves people to rebuild new systems that address and heal around the trauma of the Transatlantic slave trade and its Diaspora. I want more credit and importance given to under-represented voices that have built and contributed at great expense to America and the world. Artistically, I hope people enjoy the images and bring them into institutions so that more people can see them.