Book Trailer:
'Pictures and Progress:
Early Photography and
the Making of
African American Identity'
The new book Pictures and Progress, co-edited by Duke Professor Maurice Wallace, looks at how the invention of photography was used for and against political gain for African Americans.Learn more about the Duke University Press book here: http://www.dukeupress.edu/Catalog/ViewProduct.php?productid=17852.
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Emory acquires vast
African American
photo collection
By Maureen McGavin and Elaine Justice | June 1, 2012
These images are part of a collection of more than 10,000 photographs of African American life acquired by Emory University from photo collector Robert Langmuir of Philadelphia. 
Benjamin “Pap” Singleton, 1895.
Harlequin actor by W. Wright Photography, London, 1895.
Evangelist, unidentified, date unknown
Mary McLeod Bethune, date unknown.
Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds, New York, 1920.
Sheet music cover with Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds, New York, 1920.
Musician Leadbelly with prison officials, Texas, 1915.
A rare collection of more than 10,000 photographs depicting African American life from the late 19th and early 20th centuries has been acquired by Emory University's Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library (MARBL) from photo collector Robert Langmuir of Philadelphia.
The images range from the 1840s – the beginning of photography – to the 1970s, with most of the photos falling in the post-Civil War to pre-World War II era. They include nearly every format, from daguerreotypes to snapshots, and cover a wide range of subject matter. A number of the photos were taken by African American photographers, a topic in itself.
"This collection sparkles with intelligent insights into the lives and cultures of the African American experience over many decades," says Emory University Provost Earl Lewis, also a professor of history and African American studies. "Its breadth is incredible, its depth is considerable, and its sheer beauty is breathtaking."
"Scholars from many disciplines will find this collection to be a treasure trove for peering behind the veil and seeing the inner worlds of life in America," says Lewis. "I am proud that we can add this collection to our library."
Randall K. Burkett, curator of MARBL's African American Collections says the collection "complements virtually every other collection we have, whether it's in music, art, literature, dance, business, civil rights – any aspect of late 19th and 20th century American culture. This is going to be a signature collection for us, and I know it will attract other collections."
Civil Rights, Religious Leaders Included
The photos are of both ordinary people and well-known names of the times, such as newspaper editor and early civil rights activist William Monroe Trotter, black nationalist Marcus Garvey, sculptor Selma Burke, blues musicians Howlin' Wolf and Lightnin' Hopkins, Pearl Harbor hero Dorie Miller, and religious leaders Noble Drew Ali, Father Divine and Bishop Elmira Jeffries, among many others.
Kevin Young, MARBL curator of literary collections and of its Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, traveled with Burkett to Philadelphia to help pack the collection and calls it one of the most remarkable he's ever seen.
"The archive reveals the richness of African American daily life," says Young, "from pictures taken by house photographers at nightclubs, to cabinet cards and calling cards of black disc jockeys, to photographs of preachers, blues singers, saints and sinners. No doubt this collection will change the field of African American and American studies."
Young included several photos from Langmuir's collection in his recently published book"The Grey Album."
Collector Robert Langmuir
Growing up in Philadelphia in an African American neighborhood, Langmuir has been interested in black history for most of his life. A rare-book seller for 35 years, he's collected photos and family albums through antique book shows or ephemera fairs, auctions and networking.
Of the more than 10,000 photos in the collection, Langmuir says: "Not every photo is a stellar, poignant image. A lot of them are family archives, or from family albums, people doing things, just living their everyday lives. That's what I was interested in–looking at black culture through black people's eyes."
>via: http://news.emory.edu/stories/2012/05/upress_african_american_photo_collectio...
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Through A Lens Darkly:
Black Photographers and
the Emergence of a People
- Media
GO HERE TO VIEW VIDEO ON THE THROUGH A LENS DARKLY
Please consider supporting Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, a PBS documentary that explores how African Americans have used photography as a tool for social change. Since the birth of photography in 1840s, African Americans rejected what they saw about themselves in the dominant culture and took ownership of their own cultural image. Empowered through photography, Black people began to record and embrace their own truths and forge their own identities.
Through A Lens Darkly illuminates the hidden, little known and underappreciated stories of African Americans transforming themselves and the nation through the power of the camera lens. The film also explores how contemporary photographers and artists like Deborah Willis, Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, Anthony Barboza, Lyle Ashton Harris, Hank Willis Thomas, Glenn Ligon, Coco Fusco and Clarissa Sligh, have built upon the legacy of early Black photographers while trying to reconcile a past that our forebears would rather forget.
Please help us complete this important project by making a tax-deductible donation that will be used for the final editing, sound mix, and archival licensing of the Through A Lens Darkly project.
We have been working on this film and multimedia project for the past 8-years and we could not have made it this far without the support of our friends, colleagues, partners and funders. We welcome you to join our completion campaign.
In many ways, I was destined to make this film because of grandfather, Albert Sidney Johnson, Jr.. For him, photography was a means of unifying our extended family, knitting together the disparate branches and providing a means to connect one generation with the next. Grandpa’s stories describing his great grandparents making their way out of slavery and building their lives into something despite the crippling racial barriers they faced, were brought to life by the photographic images that boldly showed us who we really were. My family archive compelled me to create a collective archive of who we are as African Americans, as Americans, as humans.
JOIN US!!! Through A Lens Darkly is a collaborative project. We appreciate your support of our journey to create and share images of ourselves with honor, respect and dignity.
>via: http://www.usaprojects.org/project/through_a_lens_darkly_black_photographers_...