Focusing only on female subjects, the images in the exhibition are striking portraits of self-determination that show that there was no one female archetype at the time. In one image by Sakaly, a group of four young sitters on the cusp of womanhood pose solemnly and confidently, each dressed impeccably in frocks and jewelry. In a contrasting 1967 portrait by Kouyaté, four older women crouch in elegant, voluminous dresses and headwraps; their expressions are less unified and more self-conscious. One of Sakaly’s standout works is an enigmatic portrait of a young woman simply noted as having a “beautiful hairstyle,” shot in 1963. Dressed in a simple white sleeveless top, she gazes out of the frame rather than back at the photographer and his camera.

“I love reading the pose, I love reading the eyes,” Anderson said of Kouyaté’s and Sakaly’s photographs. “As a Black woman, I feel I am often misread as aggressive or upset or defensive. I want to complicate and enrich the ways these gazes are experienced and interpreted and understood, because there’s important knowledge in there for everyone.”