San Diego-based photographer Alanna Airitam describes her urge to produce The Golden Age, a series of monumental photographic portraits that celebrate African American and African Diasporan identity and counters their omission from visual narratives in much of western art history, as unrelenting. Friends and acquaintances agreed to sit for Airitam, who situates her subjects in lush sartorial and environmental settings that recall the personal and material abundance portrayed in Dutch Renaissance portraits. Working photographically, rather than with oil paint, the artist creates a forum in which we’re invited to consider matters including identity, consumption, and who is celebrated. 

Humble Arts Foundation senior editor Roula Seikaly spoke with Airitam about the project’s origin, relatable vulnerability between photographer and sitter, and challenging both stereotypes and the impermanence of popular culture through familiar media forms such as portraiture. 

Interview by Roula Seikaly