Am I What You’re Looking For focuses on young women of color who are transitioning from the academic world to the corporate setting, capturing their struggles and uncertainties on how to best present themselves in the professional workspace. As the young women pose in front of an office backdrop in the home, they recall conversations during job interviews. The women explain how employers would tell that their natural hair was unprofessional or their name was too difficult to pronounce, suggesting they alter themselves for the job. This project provides an in-depth investigation into the experiences and fears of being a woman of color in corporate America.
In her project, photographer Endia Beal positions these women „between the worlds of identity and conformity“—they are anticipating the obstacles they might encounter on their career path because they are African-American women who look like African-American women. Beal‘s subjects dress themselves in what they consider to be ideal professional attire, and she asks them mock interview questions. Endia Beal is a North Carolina-based artist, educator and activist, who is internationally known for her photographic narratives and video testimonies that examine the personal, yet contemporary stories of minority women working within the corporate space. In 2013, Beal graduated from Yale School of Art, with a Master of Fine Arts in Photography. She currently serves as the Director of Diggs Gallery and Assistant Professor of Art at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina.
