{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1758574"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1758574/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NM5505/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NM5505/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2023NM5505","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1758574","accessionNumber":"PH.425-2023","objectType":"photograph","titles":[{"title":"American Father","type":"assigned by artist"},{"title":"American Mother, American Father","type":"series title"}],"summaryDescription":"The series 'American Mother, American Father' sees Murff evolve his expanded documentary approach to challenge his own relationship to race and Blackness. Using himself as a site for broader social critique, the artist employs a variety of creative strategies to interrogate an increasing yet conflicting desire for status, success and positioning. Adopting vernacular and family photographs, combined with self-portraits which either emphasize or subvert racial tropes (such as the drug dealer or the thug), Murff presents these images as ‘affirmations’ as he learns to unpick and remake himself in his own image. The result is a newly created archive which examines the complicity of the individual and of the image in creating and maintaining racial hierarchy, confronting the often-circular role that photography plays in the (mis)representation of the other.\r\n\r\nMurff states: “My early images were made when I was experiencing rapid upward social mobility and becoming acquainted with Arkansas and Mississippi, my ancestral landscapes. Visiting the birthplaces of\r\nmy maternal and paternal families forced me to reflect on how we build identity, how identity can be created for us and how those phenomena collide.”\r\n\r\nMurff’s practice contributes to an important new generation of Black artists who are creating urgent and necessary visual conversations about contemporary America. His work represents an expanded \r\nform of contemporary documentary photography.","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Zora J. Murff","id":"AUTH394770"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Photographic paper","id":"AAT14190"}],"techniques":[{"text":"","id":""}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Archival pigment print","categories":[],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"DOP","id":"THES291628"},"images":["2023NM5505"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLC","id":"THES49171"},"free":"","case":"TOAST","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"USA","id":"x29333"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2018","earliest":"2018-01-01","latest":"2018-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"PH.426-2023","id":"O1767755"},"association":""},{"object":{"text":"PH.427-2023","id":"O1767756"},"association":""},{"object":{"text":"PH.428-2023","id":"O1767757"},"association":""}],"creditLine":"Purchase funded by the V&A Photographs Acquisition Group","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"127","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"101","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph by Zora J. Murff, 'American Father' from the series 'American Mother, American Father', 2018, archival pigment print.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["PH.425-2023"],"accessionNumberNum":"425","accessionNumberPrefix":"PH","accessionYear":2023,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-19","recordCreationDate":"2023-07-09","availableToBook":false}}