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-[Hank] This is nice.

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00:00:12,391 --> 00:00:13,725
-[Rujeko] Mm-hm.

3
00:00:17,829 --> 00:00:22,010
So are these negatives all
your grandfather's photographs?

4
00:00:22,010 --> 00:00:25,260
-Yeah, and I haven't
seen them, actually.

5
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It's kind of
awesome just to, like,

6
00:00:27,570 --> 00:00:30,119
open up a box and...

7
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find these things.

8
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These...

9
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This is one of the
first shoots I was ever on.

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00:00:35,030 --> 00:00:36,300
-[Rujeko] Oh, wow.

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-[Hank] These are photographs
from my mom's archive.

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00:00:40,480 --> 00:00:42,970
This is a picture I've
used a lot in my work.

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-[Rujeko]Mm-hm.

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-[Hank] They're being
baptized in the pool.

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-You see the horns here and...

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-[Rujeko] Mm-hm.

17
00:00:48,140 --> 00:00:49,140
-[Hank] This woman here.

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Look, this is so powerful.

19
00:00:50,780 --> 00:00:51,780
-[Rujeko] Mm-hm.

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00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:55,760
-The two things that I remember
people saying to me as early as

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three or four years old are
"You ask too many questions"

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and "You're not supposed
to stare at people."

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♪playful oscillating synths♪

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00:01:03,170 --> 00:01:09,157
[chuckling] Most of my work is
some combination of the two.

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Photography was a
reason to stare.

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All of my work is
about framing and context,

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and about how, depending
on where you're standing,

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it really shapes your
perspective of the truth,

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of reality, and
what's important.

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♪♪♪

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Along with photography, I have
to work in different mediums.

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♪♪♪

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I have to try different ways to
look at something that we might

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think that we've already
looked at a thousand times.

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♪arpeggiated synth music♪

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I was reading Roland
Barthes' book 'Camera Lucida,'

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where he talks
about the punctum.

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His perspective of the punctum
is the thing that pierces you,

39
00:02:03,341 --> 00:02:06,755
the thing that sticks
with you in the photograph.

40
00:02:07,371 --> 00:02:11,860
When I look at this photograph
of a Harlem Globetrotter

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standing in front of
the Statue of Liberty,

42
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the punctum for me was this arm.

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♪♪♪

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00:02:19,382 --> 00:02:23,700
I like to balance the
spectacle element of sports

45
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with the context of
history and politics.

46
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During my research, I was
reading Ernest Cole's landmark book

47
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'House of Bondage.'

48
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He, as a black photographer,
traveled all over South Africa

49
00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:43,190
documenting the
horrors of apartheid,

50
00:02:43,190 --> 00:02:46,409
and then smuggled these
images out of the country.

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♪♪♪

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The specific image of a lineup
of nude miners with their arms

53
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up being strip-searched
really struck me.

54
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I had seen it many times
before, but I recognized,

55
00:03:02,349 --> 00:03:05,600
with a critical eye, that I felt
often guilty looking at this

56
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picture because I was
always gawking at their bodies.

57
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My looking at it was
reinforcing the oppression.

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♪♪♪

59
00:03:16,334 --> 00:03:19,870
I wanted to remake that
image as a sculpture,

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so I titled it Raise Up.

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I want to give viewers a chance
to walk around and look up and

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look over,

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to just try to look at
these men with dignity.

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♪♪♪

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Just about six months
after I made that sculpture,

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halfway across the world
in Ferguson, Missouri,

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the phrase "Hands Up,
Don't Shoot" became popular

68
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after the murder of Mike Brown.

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-[crowd] [chanting]
Hands up, don't shoot!

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-[Hank VO] When I finally
exhibited this work in the

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United States,

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people called it "the
Hands Up, Don't Shoot piece."

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♪♪♪

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00:04:01,401 --> 00:04:06,110
I see everything as connected,
so if I'm making work about

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00:04:06,110 --> 00:04:08,940
coal miners or Ferguson

76
00:04:08,940 --> 00:04:11,040
or basketball,

77
00:04:11,678 --> 00:04:15,709
frankly, a lot of the bodies are
connected through this history

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of oppression.

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-[Hank] Zoom in, and then
you can just cycle through the

80
00:04:23,357 --> 00:04:24,215
pages.

81
00:04:24,876 --> 00:04:26,240
Mm-hm.

82
00:04:28,150 --> 00:04:31,690
I'm so glad that we chose the
3D-scan real hands for this

83
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instead of digitally-made hands.

84
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-[Sam Giarratani] I wanna
show you the finger.

85
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They take the 3D print, and
then they coat it with this wax,

86
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so that it can
stick to the ceramic.

87
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And that level of texture is
gonna come across in the bronze.

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-[Rujeko] Yes, that is crazy.

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-[Sam] Yeah.

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-[Rujeko] They look good.

91
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-And so, do you know
what that piece is?

92
00:04:50,751 --> 00:04:52,220
-[Sam] No, this is
actually just a sample.

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00:04:53,155 --> 00:04:54,708
-[Rujeko] Sample
for, like, the patina?

94
00:04:54,708 --> 00:04:55,434
-[Sam] Yeah.

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-[Hank] This is so nuts
imagining how they broke the

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00:04:58,830 --> 00:05:01,082
sculpture into 650 pieces...

97
00:05:01,082 --> 00:05:01,877
-[Sam] Mm-hm.

98
00:05:01,877 --> 00:05:02,377
-[Will] Mm-hm.

99
00:05:02,377 --> 00:05:03,820
-[Hank] And how many
people are working on this one.

100
00:05:03,820 --> 00:05:05,320
-[Sam] Yeah, it's
all hands on deck.

101
00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:06,320
-The whole foundry.

102
00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:06,955
-[Rujeko] Great.

103
00:05:06,955 --> 00:05:10,110
-Yeah, we break ground on
Coretta Scott King's birthday,

104
00:05:10,110 --> 00:05:11,630
and then...

105
00:05:11,630 --> 00:05:13,900
it debuts on MLK Day.

106
00:05:13,900 --> 00:05:14,900
-[Rujeko] Mm-hm.

107
00:05:14,900 --> 00:05:17,511
-And so the eight
months in between,

108
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everything's gotta get done.

109
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♪sparse ethereal music♪

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-[Hank VO] A few years ago, I
was invited to submit a proposal

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for the Boston Common –

112
00:05:29,189 --> 00:05:32,251
an installation in memorial
to Coretta Scott King

113
00:05:32,251 --> 00:05:34,240
and Martin Luther King.

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I didn't really know at the time
that two of the most prominent

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civil rights leaders from the
South actually met and fell in

116
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love in Boston.

117
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The fact that their love
would actually ripple out

118
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in so many ways from that first
meeting was really profound

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for me.

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I wanted to make a sculpture
that was inspired by their

121
00:06:02,060 --> 00:06:04,900
intimacy that's
larger than life.

122
00:06:05,652 --> 00:06:08,910
I found a picture of
them at the award ceremony

123
00:06:08,910 --> 00:06:11,324
for the Nobel Peace Prize.

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The punctum of
the photograph --

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the part that I was struck by --

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was the way that their arms
were wrapped around each other.

127
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His weight was resting on her.

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The fact that we speak so much
about Martin Luther King without

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acknowledging or celebrating
Coretta Scott King was something

130
00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:37,542
that was important to me, as
well as everyone involved.

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There was tension, you know,
in me and also my collaborators

132
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about what does it mean to not
include their faces and other

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body parts?

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00:06:50,420 --> 00:06:53,256
But really, when I think about
Martin Luther King and

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Coretta Scott King, I have a feeling.

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It's not the pictures I've
seen, it's a sense in my heart.

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There is a poetry in these
interlocking arms and this

138
00:07:05,410 --> 00:07:08,646
sculpture that people will go
inside of

139
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and replicate that gesture.

140
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We wanted the sculpture to
actually get to the heart of it.

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-[Dr. Deborah Willis]:We always talk about
the hidden

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archive of Black history that's

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00:07:33,530 --> 00:07:37,379
not hidden but it's there,
and it's really the...

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00:07:37,379 --> 00:07:41,391
the researcher who has
to reimagine the archive.

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When I think about, you
know, Aunt Cora's quilts...

146
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-[Hank] I wonder if that's part
of the inspiration for me --

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just a lot of the work that
I do is always very much in

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conversation subconsciously
with the work you're doing.

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-[Deb VO] I'm Deb Willis.

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I'm a photographer, a professor.

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00:07:59,580 --> 00:08:04,160
I teach at New York University
Tisch School of the Arts,

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00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:06,430
chair of the
photography program there.

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00:08:06,430 --> 00:08:07,919
♪ethereal synth music♪

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00:08:07,919 --> 00:08:10,305
I'm a writer about photography.

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♪♪♪

156
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As a child, Hank was
fascinated with photographs.

157
00:08:19,009 --> 00:08:21,210
He would go into the
photographic album,

158
00:08:21,210 --> 00:08:24,110
ask my mother, "Why is
this photograph in color?

159
00:08:24,110 --> 00:08:25,931
And why is this in
black and white?"

160
00:08:25,931 --> 00:08:29,639
And he would change the
pages to tell his own story.

161
00:08:30,619 --> 00:08:33,700
At that time, I worked for the
Schomburg Center of Research in

162
00:08:33,700 --> 00:08:37,146
Black Culture as a
photo specialist/archivist.

163
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After school,

164
00:08:39,080 --> 00:08:41,700
I would pick him
up during my break,

165
00:08:41,700 --> 00:08:43,930
take him to work with me.

166
00:08:44,660 --> 00:08:46,650
He always wanted to know,

167
00:08:46,650 --> 00:08:50,040
"Why do you have photographs
of people we don't know...

168
00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:51,709
[laughs] in our house?"

169
00:08:51,983 --> 00:08:55,810
And I said, "Because we
need to know the stories

170
00:08:55,810 --> 00:08:57,620
of the people in the image."

171
00:09:01,291 --> 00:09:02,950
-[Hank VO] As a child,
with my mother's work,

172
00:09:02,950 --> 00:09:05,860
I didn't really
understand what she was doing.

173
00:09:05,860 --> 00:09:10,010
Now, I understand that her
work, along with many others',

174
00:09:10,010 --> 00:09:14,101
was really critical in building
and expanding the field of

175
00:09:14,101 --> 00:09:17,880
photography, and
especially Black photography.

176
00:09:19,042 --> 00:09:22,779
Looking at the way that
Hank grew up in a professional

177
00:09:22,779 --> 00:09:27,440
archive of a library but
also in the family archive

178
00:09:27,440 --> 00:09:32,448
made him curious about how to
create a narrative about Black life.

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♪erratic synth music♪

180
00:09:41,152 --> 00:09:46,160
What I took from
photography was incredible

181
00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:51,169
knowledge and experience of how
to look critically at the world,

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00:09:51,169 --> 00:09:52,755
at myself.

183
00:09:53,485 --> 00:09:56,740
Because I've always been
reaching to the past and trying

184
00:09:56,740 --> 00:09:58,584
to connect with it,

185
00:09:58,584 --> 00:10:00,560
sometimes the closest
I could get to history

186
00:10:00,560 --> 00:10:03,022
is the photographic document.

187
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♪ethereal synth music♪

188
00:10:33,843 --> 00:10:36,290
There's something really
just beautiful about actually

189
00:10:36,290 --> 00:10:39,881
beginning to see the scale now
that there is over 500 pieces

190
00:10:39,881 --> 00:10:41,337
welded together.

191
00:10:41,337 --> 00:10:42,610
It's like, it's happening!

192
00:10:45,164 --> 00:10:48,640
I would estimate that there
are at least a thousand people

193
00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:51,734
who've had to work on it
in some way, shape, or form.

194
00:10:51,734 --> 00:10:54,000
♪♪♪

195
00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:58,366
Engineers, architects,
and the community boards...

196
00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,188
and then getting it
shipped across the country.

197
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♪sparse synth music♪

198
00:11:12,572 --> 00:11:15,170
The sculpture is
about the Kings,

199
00:11:16,105 --> 00:11:20,008
but it also is
really imbued with

200
00:11:20,008 --> 00:11:23,420
the care, consideration,
passion, and talent of so many

201
00:11:23,420 --> 00:11:24,660
other people.

202
00:11:26,689 --> 00:11:29,115
-[Roberto Morales VO] We're working
on something historic.

203
00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:35,290
Martin Luther King, he
talked for the people like me.

204
00:11:35,290 --> 00:11:39,809
♪uplifting synth music♪

205
00:11:39,809 --> 00:11:42,690
-[Sam] We wanted to make sure
that we were really thinking

206
00:11:42,690 --> 00:11:46,572
about all different kinds
of people

207
00:11:46,572 --> 00:11:48,345
coming into the sculpture.

208
00:11:48,345 --> 00:11:52,120
We wanted to make sure
wheelchairs can go inside.

209
00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:54,190
We want people to
come up and touch,

210
00:11:54,190 --> 00:11:58,590
so the patina lends
itself to being touched.

211
00:11:59,434 --> 00:12:01,793
-[Jonathan] The story of Martin and
Coretta was inspirational,

212
00:12:01,793 --> 00:12:04,965
and also looking at the other 65
heroes of the local

213
00:12:04,965 --> 00:12:06,818
Boston Civil Rights Movement,

214
00:12:07,890 --> 00:12:10,450
honoring those
names in the plaza,

215
00:12:11,704 --> 00:12:14,230
and pushing forward a new
narrative of what it means to be

216
00:12:14,230 --> 00:12:15,908
in the city of Boston.

217
00:12:17,846 --> 00:12:22,246
-[crowd] Ten,
nine, eight, seven,

218
00:12:22,246 --> 00:12:26,583
six, five, four, three,

219
00:12:26,583 --> 00:12:28,666
two, one!

220
00:12:28,666 --> 00:12:33,947
[cheers and applause]

221
00:12:34,608 --> 00:12:42,000
♪tender synth music♪

222
00:12:51,606 --> 00:12:55,790
-[Hank VO] There are so many
monuments to heroes of war,

223
00:12:55,790 --> 00:13:00,782
and there are not very many
to heroes of nonviolence.

224
00:13:03,199 --> 00:13:06,300
I'd like to believe that this is
just the beginning of a new way

225
00:13:06,300 --> 00:13:09,940
of thinking about how
public space can be viewed,

226
00:13:09,940 --> 00:13:15,734
and how we reflect on the past
with care and concern for the future.

227
00:13:17,490 --> 00:13:20,529
I want to make work that really
gives people a sense of pride

228
00:13:20,529 --> 00:13:24,430
and connection, that's going to
mean something to people beyond

229
00:13:24,430 --> 00:13:28,975
my circle, beyond my world,
and beyond this lifetime.

230
00:13:41,053 --> 00:13:53,131
♪ ethereal ambient music ♪