Black History Month: Photographer's Nude Self-Portraits Evoke NYC's Ties To Slavery

Note: This is the first installment of WCBS 880's Black History Month series.

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Photographer Nona Faustine dares to go bare in the street.

"They're nude self-portraits taken in and around New York City, specifically places linked to the history of slavery in New York," Faustine told WCBS 880's Jane Tillman Irving.

The artist is short and full-figured. Her stance evokes a slave on an auction block wearing only iron shackles on her wrists and high-heeled white pumps.

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"The white shoes, I wanted something that linked to the oppression of black people, the oppression of black women, Western beauty ideals that black women could never live up to, the white patriarchy that I feel people of color can never escape in this world," Faustine said.

Faustine's photographs, called "White Shoes," at the Smack Mellon gallery in Brooklyn or online at http://nonafaustine.virb.com.