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From April 6 to June 3, 2001, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art is hosting the exhibit Reflections in Black: Smithsonian African American Photography The First One Hundred Years, 1842 1942. This display is a portion of the original from the Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture of the Smithsonian Institution. The original exhibit includes works from 1942 to the present. Deborah Willis is the curator of both the original and Bowdoins abridged exhibits.
The exhibit at the BCMA consists of over one hundred photographs, daguerreotypes, and tintypes from numerous photographers. The prints are displayed in wood frames and cream mats while plates are in original casings. The displays most notable contribution to the viewer is the chronological order leading from the entrance to the exhibition. The works are grouped according to each photographer starting in 1842. This allows the viewer to see patterns and trends develop and disappear over the hundred years of examples. Emerging Authenticity Authenticity is an issue this class has dealt with in terms of display.
We have considered how display can add to or detract from the meaning of an object. In this paper I will explore how the photographs in Reflections in Black and others by black photographers changed over time. I assert that as time went on, photographers captured more information along with the subject. Later photography provided a better portrayal of the subject with this extra information. Technology advances as well as cultural changes allowed photographs to better express time, location, and culture. As with all photography, African American photography moved from posed portraiture and began to relay real scenes from dynamic situations in changing atmospheres.
This is captured in the range of works included in Reflections in Black. As museum displays are responsible for making a work appear in its appropriate context, photography is serving a similar purpose. Photographers try to capture an event and visually express the mood, time, and surroundings. Their subjects are like the works in a museum, and the photographer is trying to piece them together so that they make sense to the viewer and reflect the original scene as closely as possible. This process has become easier for black photographers with technological advances, but the more recent photography shares the African American culture with a wider audience in the most honest way possible. The pictures I will focus on show how much more a viewer can learn from the most recent photos compared to the little information relayed in older works.
This change is important because photography is a tool to educate others about African American life, and the more information that can be expressed, the better. Over the century and a half that photographers have been working emancipation, reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights movement have called for a better depiction of African American life, and photographers have answered by capturing complete and honest scenes. Early photography was largely portraiture and most of it was commissioned by the subject or their family. The technology was such that the portraits were taken after long sittings with the subject and props. The cameras were large and cumbersome, and were not transported out of the studios. This left the photographers with little creative space to make each portrait speak to its specific subject.
One notices this when viewing the Reflections in Black exhibit. The earlier photos, tintypes, and daguerreotypes were all very similar. Hand-tinting added some individuality, but the poses, facial expressions, dress, hairstyling, and print sizes are remarkably alike. Scanning the first room of portraits that are grouped chronologically in Reflections, one can distinguish between photographers only by their frame and stamp. From Montana to New York, photographs shared the same setup, style, and finished look.
This standard mold for a portrait indicates the lack of authenticity in the photographs. The props were not actually being used, the viewer does not know the subjects relationship to the place they are in or the things that surround them in the picture. Studios could easily conjure up objects to give the picture a different quality than the person would naturally express. The similarities between the photos are enough to suggest that this was frequently the case.
Some studios churned out such similar portraits that they could not all possibly be authentic representations of the individuals or times. Portrait subjects were usually dressed in their best clothes, seated, and not smiling. From the book Hidden Witness, the Portrait of a Young Man is a full-figured frame which was rare in 1855, at the time of its printing. The subject is standing up in a nice suit that does not fit him. He carries a hat, signifying his status as a stylish, free young man. In the opposite hand, he holds a skunk.
Willis suggests that the skunk was a prop staged by abolitionists, intending the young man to deliver the skunk to his former master. This is a particularly demonstrative example of the limited authenticity of early photographs. The props are contrived and assigned meanings that are not naturally evident in the image. However, the technology at the time made it impossible for a photographer to capture a more candid or meaningful moment. They could not move to a significant location or be present at the time of a certain event. Most action was in fact staged, or subjects held faux objects.
Richard Samuel Roberts was the first to seek out a more authentic setting for portraits when he advertised that he would to travel into peoples homes for portrait sittings to make them more comfortable. The aspect of location is extremely important to creating an authentic depiction of a person and time in their life. People were photographed in offices, outdoors, in their homes, and with their favorite belongings. We can see that once the subject is in a setting where they are comfortable the product is automatically a more realistic representation of the times.
The subject is relaxed and engaged when surrounded by their own belongings. The photographs are also of more historic value when they include information like where people lived, what they had in their homes and how they decorated. It is even more important for photographers to capture authentic moments when we consider the attention photographs are given as resources document history. Historians take a lot of information from photographs, furthering the value of accuracy by the artists. The 1925 publication of Alain Locke's The New Negro brought attention to the cultural achievements of blacks living in Harlem during the 1920 s.
The anthology also included essays defining the changing role of African Americans. Blacks were emerging in very public roles as musicians, artists, writers, and philosophers. The Harlem Renaissance was underway and America shone a spotlight on that New York neighborhood. As the nations attention turned to Harlem and her artistic products, there was a demand to document the events there. Photographers during the Harlem renaissance became a type of photojournalists, capturing the moods and atmosphere that bred such artistic works. James VanDerZee in particular was hugely successful at depicting life for the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance.
He had a diverse body of work, ranging from portraits of Marcus Garvey, to group portraits of marching bands, to experimental super-imposed images. The matured technology allowed him to take photographs wherever and with greater speed, but it had a deeper effect on the authenticity of the photos. His subjects were truly interacting with their surroundings. As Deborah Willis explains; Missing from VanDerZees best works is the forced sentimentality that makes many Pictorial works seem simplistic and contrived. By the 1930 s photography was so popular and advanced that many pictures could be taken of lively action scenes. Robert McNeill captures the excitement and vitality of the famed Savoy Ballroom in his 1937 photograph, Jitterbug.
The dancing couple is swept up in the moment, they may not even be aware of their expressions. This is a great departure from the expressionless, unnatural posed portraits of the 19 th Century. One can feel the motion and hear the beat of the ballroom from Mcneill's picture. He captures all the dynamics in the room, and leaves the viewer with little to question. However, McNeill accomplishes this without staging any of the action himself.
The image capturing real action taking place is a move towards more authentic accounts of African American life. Although it is not included in The First Hundred Years, Budd Williams Double Dutch, of 1990 is a fitting example of common, culturally meaningful action saved forever in a great photograph. Williams captures the joy of the children in the picture as without ignoring the negative aspects of their surroundings. It depicts a very real scene of urban African Americans in the 1990 s. The girls are making the best of their resources and clearly enjoying themselves. The classic game of double dutch also signifies a tradition of African American culture.
Perhaps the children learned the game and local variations from older children or relatives. Williams tells how innocent these children are by showing that although surrounded by asphalt and graffiti, they are content to play a very simple game. Although we cannot fully recognize the girls and they are not in their first Communion dresses for a special event, we still learn a great deal about the time from this picture. The parts of the photograph that make it authentic are the subtleties like the cracked street they play on, and the dirty walls of the city. The girls hairstyles and clothing tell the viewer about real life in 1990, not just the fashions for a wedding or funeral. The transition from completely staged portraits to authentic, active shots is made over the century and a half from Portrait of a Young Man to Double Dutch.
We know so much more about the girls in Double Dutch than the young man, yet he was probably posed for an entire afternoon, and the girls may still not realize that their picture was ever taken. The three photographs discussed outline the emergence of real authenticity to African American photography. The black photographer is in a unique situation of being a constant journalist, one who is always reporting to the outside viewer who may or may not have a working knowledge of the subject. This challenge and the events of the last hundred and sixty years have called upon African American photographers to create and teach. Photography will not cure the world of racism in a week, but the presence of authentic photo documentation of African American life can help educate.
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Research essay sample on African American Culture Harlem Renaissance
