Beal, Endia

American, b. 1985

BiographyIn her series Am I What You’re Looking For? Endia Beal photographs Black women who recently finished their educations and are interviewing for corporate jobs in the United States. Beal places each woman in front of an office backdrop that has been placed inside of their own homes. While sitting, the women share stories with the artist on their process of interviewing, revealing 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 discriminations many Black women experience in the workplace and the altered identities they are encouraged to assume to succeed or fit in.

Endia Beal completed a dual bachelors in art history and studio art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MFA from Yale University. She is an Associate Professor of Photography at Winston-Salem State University and Director of the University’s Diggs Gallery. She has a Center for Curatorial Leadership fellowship and she has completed residencies at the Harvard Art Museum; the Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY; and McColl Center for Art + Innovation, Charlotte, NC. Beal received grants from the Magnum Foundation and the Open Society Foundation, among others. This project was a recipient of the 2016 Magenta Foundation Emergency Fund grant.