Chandra McCormick, Mark Gale/Glendale Plantation, c. 1987, courtesy of the photographer, New Orleans, LA

The rich legacy of African American photographers is explored in Reflections in Black: Smithsonian African American Photography, a three-part exhibition that historically documents the black experience in the United States. The exhibition, the first ever to explore the history of black photography from 1840 to the present, features a groundbreaking assemblage of work by 120 photographers presented in more than 300 images of remarkable expressive power. The exhibition will be presented at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO), the Oakland Museum of California, and the Mills College Art Museum.

In a unique collaboration, the three Oakland museums hosting the exhibition will comprise the only complete presentation of Reflections in Black in the western United States. All three shows open on June 7, 2003. Part One of the exhibition, The First 100 Years: 1842-1942, will be presented by the African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO) through Aug. 31, 2003. Part Two, Art and Activism, will be presented by the Oakland Museum of California, also through Aug. 31, and A History Deconstructed will be presented by the Mills College Art Museum, closing on Aug.10.

" It's a groundbreaking exhibit," said Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. "Over 300 images documenting decades of experience from slavery through the civil rights era to present day artfully presented by three of Oakland's cultural and educational institutions."

Images of family events, human-rights activities and the cultural vitality of the Harlem Renaissance are among the featured works. The exhibition counters stereotypes with an interior view of life in black America, while exploring how African Americans have embraced photography as a means of creating and communicating personal and social dignity.

The First 100 Years, 1842-1942
(presented at AAMLO)

  In the 19th and early 20th centuries, African American photographers were pioneers in the medium of photography. Jules Lion (1810-1866) began producing daguerreotypes in New Orleans in 1840, just one year after the invention of the process. These early artists immediately understood the new medium's power to create a comprehensive visual legacy and provide support for progressive social philosophies.

With Lion's work as a starting point, the first part of the exhibition follows the development of African American photography through its first one hundred years. Photographers used newly invented techniques, including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, stereographs, composite printing, and flash photography, to create images that form a technical history of the medium as well as a pictorial history of African American life.

Some of the photographers included in this section are:

•  James Presley Ball (1825-1905), a free black abolitionist who photographed the construction of the Montana state capitol building and produced thousands of highly prized photographs for an emerging black middle class in Helena, Montana.

• Daniel Freeman (1868-?), a painter and sought-after society photographer who opened his first studio in Washington, D.C., where he taught photography and started the Washington Amateur Art Society.  He also represented the District of Columbia in an exhibition at the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta.

• Arthur P. Bedou (1881-1966), a New Orleans native who rose to fame through his portraits of jazz musicians, and for documenting the life of activist and educator Booker T. Washington.

• Florestine Perrault Collins (1895-1988), who owned and operated a studio in New Orleans from 1920 to 1949, photographing families and visiting World War II soldiers.  She opened her first studio in the living room of her home, using relatives as subjects for portraits that would make her one of Louisiana's most respected photographers.

Art and Activism
(presented at the Oakland Museum of California)

Jonathan Eubanks (active 1960s-90s), Black Panther Party member, Oakland, carrying "Free Huey" flag, Gelatin silver print, 1969

African American photographers were instrumental in motivating cultural change while documenting the beginnings of the civil rights and black power movements in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  In this section of the exhibition, marches, meetings, rallies and leading figures such as Malcolm X, H. Rap Brown and Thurgood Marshall are seen through the eyes of leading photojournalists of the day.

These decades also marked a time of new artistic approaches in photography. Some photographers moved beyond the traditional goal of objective reportage, using the power of narrative and metaphor to expand the awareness of the public and combat the negative stereotyping found in mainstream media culture.  Photographers sought to be "graphic historians," creating a collective biography of African American people that would empower them in their struggle for civil rights, while at the same time providing evidence of the diversity of their individual histories, values and goals.

Some of the photographers included in this section are:

• Jonathan Eubanks (b. 1927), of Oakland, California, who employed a documentary style in chronicling the activities of the Black Panther Party. His photographs explore the personal worlds of party members as well as their encounters with police and the lives of their leaders.

• Chester Higgins, Jr. (b. 1946), a staff photographer for the New York Times, who has been documenting the African diaspora for more than thirty years. He is the photographer and author of several photo collections including "Feeling the Spirit: Searching the World for People of Africa" (Bantam Books, 1994).

• Lewis Watts (b. 1946), a Bay Area photographer and assistant professor of art at U.C. Santa Cruz, who documents the customs and practices of African Americans living on the West Coast and in the South through photographs of their cultural landscapes -- where they live, how they occupy and use space, and the traces they leave behind.

• Jean Weisinger (b. 1954), a self-taught photographer based in Oakland, California, who has traveled widely throughout the world photographing people of color, and has since the mid-1980s documented the political activities of African American women.

• Chandra McCormick (b. 1957), a native of New Orleans and a photojournalist, who has been documenting black life in Louisiana for the past 15 years. Her work has focused on sugar cane, sweet potato and cotton field workers; cultural rituals in New Orleans such as funerals and parades; and life in public housing developments.

A History Deconstructed
(presented at Mills College Art Museum)

During the past two decades, African American artists have used their work to help break down the power that rigid concepts of race and gender hold in our culture, while redefining the photographic image as document and metaphor. These artists often deconstruct and reconstruct their personal histories and public personas through the symbolic and expressive imagery in their works.

These artists use strategies that mix and blend text with image and fact with fantasy in an attempt to challenge the viewer's assumptions about artistic authority and authenticity.  By questioning commonly held beliefs about representation in general, they initiate reconsideration, allowing new questions to be asked and new values to be formed.

Among the featured artists in this section are:

• Carrie Mae Weems (b. 1953), who holds degrees from the University of California in both folklore and photography. Weems uses photographs, often with text superimposed over the image, to recall how African Americans have been represented in photographic history. She also creates sequential photographs and text that examine the experiences of women in general and black women specifically.

• Stephen Marc (b. 1954), who creates primarily autobiographical digital montages that combine his photographs, drawings, and computer-generated imagery with snapshots from the family archive and collected antique photographs.

• Albert Chong (b. 1958), who was born in Jamaica of African and Chinese ancestry, and incorporates references to all three cultures in his work, which uses family photographs, religious icons and animal remains to explore ritual as it is translated into art.

• Keba Armand Konte (b. 1966), an Oakland-based photographer who has been making photographs since age 14. In his current work, he expands familiar references by printing his images on unconventional surfaces, creating works of photomontage on wood.

• Cynthia Wiggins (active 1990s), who uses photographs and text to create a narrative about the hard work done by men in her family, emphasizing the difficult and dangerous nature of labor.

Reflections in Black: Smithsonian African American Photography was curated by Deborah Willis, former curator of exhibitions at the Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution (the originating institution), and currently professor of photography and imaging at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Willis is also a photographer, historian and the author of the book Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present (Norton, 2000).

Reflections in Black: Smithsonian African American Photography is organized by the Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, and is circulated by Curatorial Assistance, Pasadena, California. Local project managers for the exhibition are Carey Caldwell, curator of special projects in history, and Carolee Smith Rogers, history interpretive specialist, both at the Oakland Museum of California; Rick Moss, chief curator at AAMLO; and Stephan Jost, director of Mills College Art Museum.

Presentation of the exhibition is made possible by the Oakland Museum Women's Board, with major support from Albertson's and SBC. Additional support provided by the Port of Oakland. Media sponsors are KBLX 102.9 FM and The Oakland Tribune.

Special thanks to Brothers Brewing Company, Marriott Hotel, Southwest Airlines.

Please visit the Reflections in Black website from the Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution.
 
The African American Museum and Library at Oakland is dedicated to discovering, preserving, interpreting and sharing the historical and cultural experiences of African Americans in California and the West. The museum is located at 14th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Oakland. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5:30 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call 510/637-0200 or visit the museum web site at www.oaklandlibrary.org/AAMLO.

The Oakland Museum of California is devoted to the environment, history and art of the state. The museum is located at Oak and 10th Streets in downtown Oakland, one block from the Lake Merritt BART station and four blocks from Highway 880. Museum hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.; first Friday of the month open until 9 p.m. Click here for admission information. For more information, call 510/238-2200 or visit the museum web site at www.museumca.org.

The Mills College Art Museum welcomes the public and is devoted to the education of the students of Mills College. The museum is located at 5000 MacArthur Blvd. at Mills College in Oakland. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m.; open every Wednesday until 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call 510/430-2164 or visit the museum web site at www.mills.edu/MCAM.

Press contact for AAMLO: Rick Moss, 510/637-0197, rmoss@oaklandlibrary.org

Press contact for Oakland Museum of California: Shirleen Schermerhorn, 510/238-3402, shirleen@museumca.org

Press contact for Mills College Art Museum: Stephan Jost, 510/430-3340, sjost@mills.edu

For press information see www.museumca.org/press/

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