his second year there, he took a trip to Amsterdam to visit his brother that was living there at the time. In Amsterdam, Harris discovered a book by Allan Sekula, “Photography Against the Grain: Essays and Photo Works” that he believes drastically altered his ideas of self-development, changing the course of his life. Harris returned to the US and spent the following semester exploring NYC through the black clubbing scene of the 1980s. He took courses in the arts, returned to Wesleyan, came out as queer, and switched his major to art. In 1988, Harris graduated from Wesleyan University with a BFA.Harris received his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and attended the National Graduate Photography Seminar at the Tisch School of the Arts in 1990. Following this time, Harris also participated in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 1992. Americas According to art critic Maximilíano Duron, an emergence of self-realization within Harris sparked his first work titled “Americas” between 1987 and 1988. “Americas” is a black and white photography series in which Harris dresses in wigs and wears whiteface. Scholars, Kwame Appiah and Cassandra Coblentz, view “Americas” as Harris’ discovery of both his voice as an artist, and as a man, while toying with blackface in reverse. Harris went on to attend the California Institute for the Arts and describes facing challenges there as one of the only students of color. After receiving feedback from a professor that his work was misunderstood by a white audience, he created a piece intended to command attention. This piece was Harris standing in a leopard bodysuit with a derogatory word referring to homosexuals painted in red lipstick at the bottom. Harris expresses that he used this piece to claim his identity, and reassume power over it, in a way that everyone could understand. Constructs Harris’ struggle at CalArts inspired his work titled “Constructs”. Constructs furthered the ideas of his previous work “Americas”, as he aimed to showcase what it means to be a queer black man and accentuated the connection between sexuality and race. He dressed mainly in minstrel attire and used whiteface to critique the static aspects of culture in the US led by a white majority. Exhibitions Whitney Museum Independent Study Program Harris’ first exhibition-style work was curated in 1992, in a series he created through the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program.The collection was a color-based series,