Context: When Black Twitter exploded into popular culture in the early aughts, what was once underground entered the mainstream. Corporations and creators alike started chasing the way Black folks dress, talk, and act in an attempt to signal progressive values. This shift explains the increasing popularity of grills, tooth gems, and models with gapped teeth, all of which are commonly associated with Black folks.
Approach: This collage is inspired by the way A/B testing flattens humans into a series of inputs, showing models whose traits (like gapped teeth) have been cut out, remixed, and fed into an algorithm. This visual reimagination of the New York Times article “Helen, with the Gold Teeth” deconstructs the commodification of Black culture by tracing how gapped teeth have gone from derided to desired. I worked as a team of one and was responsible for the concept, photo editing, copywriting, and layout.