Helfman’s subjects in the “Historical Correction” series wear the same aloof expressions of 17th-century noblemen and women in portraits commissioned from artists like Frans Hals. Light plays across their faces, white collars and billowing black vestments in a manner familiar to followers of the Dutch and Flemish masters.
The difference is that their faces are varying shades of brown.
Helfman, 61, wanted to create historical documentation of a population that never was. The images subvert the obvious storyline — that social strata often break down along racial lines. Her photos are a “contradiction,” she said, to the stories of inequality that are being told in protests across the United States.
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Maxine Helfman is a photographer based in Dallas. You can follow her on Facebook.
