The Photograph
The Photograph starring Issa Rae as the main character Mae and LaKieth Stanfield as Michael her love interest.
A modern day millennial black romance “Black Romance” is passionate, fun and can be complicated and one looking on the outside won’t understand our struggles, our pain, our curiosity and or lack of communication because we live in a culture of “thirsty”, and not wanting to look desperate or to be played as a fool.
Mae was a thirty-something art curator working in NYC, and Michael was a thirty-something journalist working for the NY Post. Coincidentally what brought Mae and Michael together was her deceased mother Christina, who was a professional photographer in the late 80’s. Michael was doing a story on Mae’s mother Christina and he met Mae seeking photos her mother took.
Without giving any major spoilers Mae’s mother Christina had her own story, she had her own dreams but she was in a battle of her own love or career, settling for the simple life or leaving for more at that time Christina
wanted more she was a small town Louisiana girl who wanted to be accomplished and she had a love interest Isaac and he wanted to marry her and live happily ever after, but Christina didn’t want her only accomplishment in life as being a wife and making a man’s dinner every night.
We are often in a whirlwind of emotions and wonder when dating someone new. I felt all the feels when Mae first saw Michael for the first time. While Mae grieves over the loss of her mother Christina, she also tries to unpack the curiosity of her mother and why her mother did the things she did. While her mother had a love story of her own that similarly somewhat paralleled Mae’s and Michael’s. While unpacking her mother’s belongings and reading a letter her mother wrote specifically to Mae, Mae discovers a new relationship she didn’t know existed before. Through Christina’s story we discover that black women chooses career over love sometimes, and influences from the outside world, like Christina wanting to move to NY where she could thrive in the industry and Christina’s own mother telling her what is the point of taking pictures if no one is going to see them.
The influence of others and the curiosity of what if was the main drive of Christina’s choices. Mae had to discover that preceding her mother’s death. We often do have to learn things about people unfortunately after they die, because often we are afraid to ask or don’t ask at all.
The Photograph was a beautiful love story. It’s about the discovery of self, reflecting on our influences in how we love, and communicate in our current love lives, the light we bring to the lives of others and the regret we may have because we didn’t know how to communicate the true desires of our hearts. It’s a piece of cinema that will leave an impression, and will be mentioned in the black romance classics such as Love Jones or Love & Basketball. The Photograph portrayed the black love we desire, and the black love in films that can be appreciated for years to come. Go see the Photograph to get all your black love feels.