--- title: Spike Lee TIME Cover: Carrie Mae Weems Photographed the Director description: Artist Carrie Mae Weems photographed director Spike Lee for the Aug. 20 TIME. Like Lee, Weems often uses art as a way to reflect on history. canonical: https://time.com/5360216/spike-lee-time-cover/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-09T10:30:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:57:38.366Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: The Story Behind TIME's Spike Lee Cover og:description: Like Lee, artist Carrie Mae Weems often uses art as a way to reflect on history og:url: https://time.com/5360216/spike-lee-time-cover/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt832a175d974e1cf1/69893759db29870126260620/time-magazine-cover-spike-lee.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: Spike Lee BlacKkKlansman Long Game Time Magazine Cover 180820 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Story Behind TIME's Spike Lee Cover twitter:description: Like Lee, artist Carrie Mae Weems often uses art as a way to reflect on history twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt832a175d974e1cf1/69893759db29870126260620/time-magazine-cover-spike-lee.jpg?branch=production ---  # The Story Behind TIME's Spike Lee Cover > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Aug 9, 2018 10:30 AM UTC  Photograph by Carrie Mae Weems for TIME  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Aug 9, 2018 10:30 AM UTC For [the Aug. 20 cover](http://time.com/longform/blackkklansman-spike-lee/), TIME asked artist Carrie Mae Weems to photograph director Spike Lee, whose latest film _BlacKkKlansman_ — based on the true story of a black detective who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s — hits theaters Friday. Both are artists who aim to, through their work, shine a light on people who have been overlooked in American history. The photoshoot is not the first time that Weems, a 2013 MacArthur “Genius” grant winner and Lee, the Oscar-nominated director, have crossed paths. Prints from her iconic [_Kitchen Table_ series](http://carriemaeweems.net/galleries/kitchen-table.html) appear in a scene from [_She’s Gotta Have It_](https://www.thecut.com/2017/11/women-go-to-therapy-on-shes-gotta-have-it.html)_,_ his 2017 Netflix adaptation of his 1986 feature film. A photo on his Instagram feed recently [hinted](https://www.instagram.com/p/BlqSZsyjF2F/) that the two are collaborating for the show’s second season. Perhaps her best-known work, _Ki_ _tchen Table_ (1990) is a series of photographic vignettes of Weems playing a woman engaged in various activities at the kitchen table. “It’s a mock biography of one woman’s journey as she contemplates and negotiates what it means to be a contemporary woman who wants something different for herself,” Weems [once described](https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/25/the-genius-of-carrie-mae-weems/) the work. “Even though it’s anchored around a black woman, my hope was always that it would be understood as a condition of women.” It came out right as the national conversation about a woman’s place at the table — in the family, in the workplace — hit a boiling point in the early ’90s. It would be amplified by other milestones such as the release of [_Thelma & Louise_ ](http://time.com/4344000/thelma-louise-25th-anniversary-feminism-women-gender/)and law professor [Anita Hill](http://time.com/25212/anita-hill-documentary-sexual-harassment/) testifying that she had been sexually harassed by Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas — both in 1991. [_Read the Aug. 20 TIME cover story, “Spike Lee’s Long Game.”_](http://time.com/longform/blackkklansman-spike-lee/) Like Lee, Weems often uses art as a way to reflect on history. As photo historian Deborah Willis [described her approach](http://time.com/52802/carrie-mae-weems-a-look-back-on-three-decades/) to TIME in 2012, she “confronts historical depictions and restages them with ‘what if…’ questions,” citing [_From Here I Saw What Happened_ and _I Cried_](http://carriemaeweems.net/galleries/from-here.html)_,_ her red-tinted re-imagination of daguerrotypes of slaves by J.T. Zealy, commissioned by a Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz to prove the racial inferiority of blacks to whites.  Artist Weems created a grid to celebrate Lee’s 30-year career as a filmmaker, beginning with breakouts She’s Gotta Have It (1986), School Daze (1988) and Do the Right Thing (1989). He has always tackled issues of race and identity in culture: “One of the constant criticisms for Do the Right Thing was that Spike would not provide the answers for racism,” Lee says. Carrie Mae Weems for TIME In fact, the blue-tinted grid of Spike Lee’s greatest hits in the latest issue is inspired by her 2009-2010 _Untitled (Colored People Grid),_ pictures of black adolescents in different color tones. That piece, which challenges viewers to keep an open mind about color, was on display at the [Guggenheim Museum in New York City](https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/carrie-mae-weems-three-decades-of-photography-and-video), where Weems was the first African-American woman to have a retrospective show in 2014\. Such themes are all part of the self-described [“cultural diplomacy”](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/01/27/a-place-at-the-table) that she is pursuing. As she summed up her [approach](https://www.lennyletter.com/story/the-lenny-interview-carrie-mae-weems) to making art in 2016, an artist’s “obligation” is to “make what you want to see in the world.” Spike Lee TIME Cover: Carrie Mae Weems Photographed the Director ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5360216/spike-lee-time-cover/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5360216/spike-lee-time-cover/"},"headline":"The Story Behind TIME's Spike Lee Cover","datePublished":"2018-08-09T10:30:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:57:38.366Z","description":"Artist Carrie Mae Weems photographed director Spike Lee for the Aug. 20 TIME. 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