Dianne Smith began taking photographs in the mid-1990s after relocating to Harlem. Moved to document the extraordinary, everyday beauty of this historically Black community, Smith gradually amassed an archive of images that she would later employ in her ongoing series “Between Harlem and Me” (2021 to present).

This series of photomontages combines Smith’s snapshots with archival images from New York’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In Another Sunday Outing, the artist superimposes her color image of an elegantly dressed woman walking home from church on West 125th Street and Eighth Avenue over two historical photographs of the same corner. The image marks nearly a century of transformation, from evolving fashions to changes in the built landscape. Yet, Smith’s work collapses time, suggesting a cultural continuity that transcends decades.

Smith was inspired to create “Between Harlem and Me” to capture everyday life in Harlem’s Black community, which is dwindling due to gentrification. The artist was sensitive to the biased depiction of Black people and communities in the media and aimed to create new imagery to reflect her vision. As she describes, “It’s either we’re the criminal or the other extreme, the athlete, the entertainer, or the very wealthy; and the everyday life that resides in between, where I find the beauty, was overlooked.”