{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1767757"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1767757/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NM5506/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NM5506/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2023NM5506","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1767757","accessionNumber":"PH.428-2023","objectType":"photograph","titles":[{"title":"Fronting (Affirmation #4), 2020, diptych","type":"assigned by artist"}],"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.\n\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 my 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 form of contemporary documentary photography.","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Zora J. Murff","id":"AUTH394770"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"DOP","id":"THES291628"},"images":["2023NM5506"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"DR","shelf":"28","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"USA","id":"x29333"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2020","earliest":"2020-01-01","latest":"2020-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"PH.425-2023","id":"O1758574"},"association":""},{"object":{"text":"PH.426-2023","id":"O1767755"},"association":""},{"object":{"text":"PH.427-2023","id":"O1767756"},"association":""}],"creditLine":"Purchase funded by the V&A Photographs Acquisition Group","dimensions":[],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph by Zora J. Murff, 'Fronting (Affirmation #4), 2020, diptych' from  the series  'American Mother, American Father', 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.428-2023"],"accessionNumberNum":"428","accessionNumberPrefix":"PH","accessionYear":2023,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-02","recordCreationDate":"2023-10-20","availableToBook":false}}