Sabrina and Katrina, from the "Am I What You're Looking For?" series

About the Photographer

Beal, Endia

American, b. 1985

Endia Beal’s series "Am I What You’re Looking For?" (2016) addresses racial and gender-based inequities within corporate America. Beal poses young women of color who are looking for work soon after graduating college in front of an office backdrop that has been placed inside their own homes. While sitting, the women share stories with the artist on their challenges finding work, including accounts of interviewers telling them that their natural hair is unprofessional or their name too difficult to pronounce. These stories provide a critical look into the distressing experiences many women of color have in the workplace and the altered identities they are encouraged to assume to succeed or fit in. Endia Beal is an Associate Professor of Photography at Winston-Salem State University and Director of the university’s Diggs Gallery. This project was a recipient of the 2016 Magenta Foundation Emergency Fund grant.