Example Essay on History of African American Photography

History of African American Photography Essay

The first slave ship, whose name is unknown to historical record, arrived on a shores of The united states in 1609. The first 20 Africans who arrived in America, delivered on by Captain Joe and his crew, had been nearly unaware of what their destiny entailed. These innocent Africans have been stolen from their homeland to be able to meet their fate as slave workers in colonial America. In the very first moment that they stepped foot onto American soil, these Africans were treated as savages and had been oppressed. These Africans, and the millions who were to follow close behind, experienced one thing but freedom, equality, and justice in America, the country from the free.

Since the starting with the African American struggle, black persons have risen up against the oppression and inequality that American society has faced them with. The African American community has given a tenacious fight to accomplish equality as being a folks mainly because their first days in America. From slave ship revolts, to slave uprisings and attempted insurrections, towards the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960′s, black men and women have not relented in their fight for freedom. Not only have the African American people continued to fight for justice for over 300 years, but they've also done their very best to write-up this struggle. 1 way in which black men and women have documented their history as People has been though the eye on the camera.

Believe it or not, African American photography has a long-standing history in America. In 1840, one particular year right after the procedure was invented, Jules Lion (a free African American in New Orleans) began making daguerreotypes. With the work of Lion as their inspiration, other African Americans, such as Augustus Washington, James Presley Ball, and Daniel Freeman, began to develop the field of photography further. (http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2001/07/11/28840.html). As the field of photography progressed technologically over the years, so did the material being shot by African American photographers. The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960Тs encouraged a major improve in the subject matter of these photographers. The question that this paper will address is: How did the Civil Rights Movement, acting as an inspiration for social alter in all aspects of African American life, effect the field of African American photography?

Before the Civil Rights Movement, black photographers have been merely looked at as social documenters. The changes how the Civil Rights Movement brought towards the African American experience, allowed them to move on away from their limited role as photojournalists and into their role as artists. Due to the fact the Civil Rights Movement, they have been in a position to continue their legacy of documentation while also expressing themselves much more freely as artists. The use of symbolism and communicative imagery has allowed black photographers of recent decades to significance the photograph being a document, whilst also seeking at it like a metaphor.

African American photographers were extremely involved in developing the field of photography during its first 100 years of existence, from about 1843 to 1942. Quite a few freedmen of this time period, for example Augustus Washington, James Presley Ball, and Daniel Freeman, realized the power that this medium entailed. Black photographers of this time period looked at photography as a method to purely and realistically represent the African American experience.

The creators of 19th century loved ones portraits focused their lens on humankind, and thus efficiently documented the humanity on the African American people. That is why their portraits have turn into a strong source for the study of slavery and race. (http://www.seeingblack.com/x062901/reflections.shtml). 1 illustration of this testimonial photography is James Presley Ball’s Portrait of the Hanging. (See fig. 1.) This photograph helped to illustrate Ball’s business interest in documenting the oppressive experience of the African Americans.

As distinguished inside C.M. BatteyТs photographs of crucial African American figures, black photographers inside the early component from the last century had been specifically interested in documenting their folks through the use of portraiture. In doing these portrait images, the photographers of this time were not interested in adding any points of artistic expression to their work. Consequently, Battey’s portraits of Fredrick Douglass, W.E.B. Dubois, and Booker T. Washington held the effortless function of recording the presence of these leaders. (See fig. 2.) These portraits are component of what is named the “New Negro” movement during the understand of African American photography. The “New Negro” image was a innovative way of representing the black experience. Rather than representing black men and women as ignorant, slothful, and with no work ethic, the photographers of this time designed optimistic impressions in the black community via their work. (http://www.africana.com/Articals/tt_788.htm).

During the 1930′s the field of African American photography experienced a Very good Migration of its own. This migration dealt on the moving of black photographers into their role as photojournalists for local newspapers and national magazines. The photojournalists of this time period (1930Тs Ц 1960Тs) have been extremely concerned with documenting public and political events. The political turbulence of this era allowed black photojournalists to express their attitudes toward the ideas being discussed and debated (such as the laws of Jim Crow). Gordon Parks was a essential photojournalist of this time, and he was first applied as being a photographer at the Farm Services Administration. There he helped to document “the plight on the needy during the depression and to make a historical record of social and cultural conditions across the country.” (http://www.tfaoi.com/newsm1/n1m673.htm). ParksТ photograph, entitled American Gothic (1942), efficiently documented the irony with the African American experience up to this thing in history. (See Fig 3). In this image, Parks used abrupt symbolism to convey his message around the social case of African Americans. On commenting about this piece, Parks stated:

“What the camera had to complete was expose the evils of racism, the evils of poverty, the discrimination and also the bigotry, by showing the those who suffered probably the most under it. That was the way it had to be done” The photograph from the black cleaning woman standing in front with the American flag having a broom along with a mop expresses over any other photograph I have taken.” (Black Photographers Bear Witness: 100 Many years of Social Protest.)

During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960Тs, black photographers documented the public and political events from the time, whilst also communicating the African American perception regarding these events through the use of symbolism. The goal of the Civil Rights Movement was to bring an end towards the institutionalized idea of “separate but equal” that was instilled in the program by the united states Supreme Court situation Plessey Vs. Ferguson (http://www.multiracial.com/government/plessy.html.) Black photographers on the 1960′s worked to capture the struggles, the hardships, as well as the benefits of this movement on film. African American photographers worked to build Уa collective biography of African American persons that would empower them in their struggle for civil rights.” (http://www.carlagirl.net/exhibs.reflectshow.html). Not merely did they document the political, social, and economic struggle of the African American folks of this decade, but they also showed, from the use of symbolism, the meaning behind the movement.

An powerful instance of how symbolism was applied intermittently with documentation during the Civil Rights Movement is Moneta Sleet Jr.Тs photograph in the Selma March in Alabama. (See Fig. 4). This photograph recorded the march as an event from the movement, although also showing the power behind the true experience on the demonstration. The American flag (worn by a single from the African American marchers), the freedom song, as well as the march itself are all symbols illustrated in this work. Martin Luther King, Jr., a predominate leader in the Civil Rights Movement, thought the freedom songs to become at the soul on the movement. “The songs add hope to our determination that “we shall overcome, black and white, we shall more than come someday.” (Black Photographers Bear Witness: 100 Many years of Social Protest.) Due to the fact the Freedom song was this kind of an important aspect the movement, Sleet choose to use this image as being a source of documentation for your event.

After many years of social protest, marches, and boycotts, African Individuals finally achieved their goal of dissolving segregation of the races from the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. (http://www.blackhistory.eb.com/micro/129/79.html). This achieved integration allowed black men and women to accomplish higher freedoms as a race in all aspects of livelihood. As a result, black photographers started to stray from their roles as photojournalists. The 1970′s and 80′s brought, for the first time, artistic expression towards the jobs on the African American photographer. The photographers of this time still looked at the photographic image as a document, but also looked at it like a metaphor.

The goal in the photographers during the last two decades has been to expose the conceptions of race and gender that are held in our society and bring a various awareness in the black experience through their art. The images created within the 80′s and 90′s supply sociological and psychological insights into black history. The photographers of this section cross the photographic image with other sorts of media to be able to “challenge the viewer’s assumptions about artistic authority and authenticity.” Through with the photographic image like a metaphor for higher meanings, fine art photographers of recent decades have allowed new queries being asked on the black experience becoming represented. (http://www.carlagirl.net/exhibs.reflectshow.html).

Carrie Mae Weems is 1 with the photographers of this time period who uses symbolism in her images to produce visual metaphors. Her photograph titled “As a Child I Loved the Aroma of Coffee” (taken in 1988) is often a prime illustration of using symbols to tell a story of higher meaning. (See Fig. 5). In the center of this image sits a coffee cup and also a coffee pot, whose steel surface makes reflection from the room’s environment. At a viewer’s very first glance he or she would not take in significantly meaning away from this image, but a second appear reveals a small textual insert within the upper right-hand corner of the piece. This text reads:

“As a child I loved the aroma of coffee. Smelling it drove me nuts cuz it reminded me of cocoa, of chocolate, candy. Anyway, my parents rarely drunk coffee. But when they did, Id stand at the kitchen table begging as being a salivating dog in your lick. Momma and daddy would be sitting up, elbows on table, talking, sipping like white individuals on t.v. Shooing me away with, “Ya don’t require no coffee, coffee’ll make ya black.”

This image gives insight on the artists past experience as being a black person trying to grow-up in a white man’s world. The ignorance with the child as well as the unsophisticated language in this passage indicate a feeling of racial inferiority. For Weems, a reflective coffee pot symbolizes her very own struggle being a black American as well as the oppression of her people. Even though this piece nonetheless acts like a post of this oppression, it also uses the abstract capabilities of fine art to reveal her message.

The artistic images which are produced by African American photographers these days would have never existed if the Civil Rights Movement had not endorsed major social changes in American society. As a result of the African American struggle for equality during the 60′s, African American’s of today are free to explore the field of photography beyond the boundaries of photojournalism. Though some of photography’s principle founders have been in reality African American’s, it was not until the passing with the Civil Rights Act that African People in america were given a fair and equal opportunity to succeed as fine art photographers. Due to the Civil Rights Act the public school procedure was integrated, and black persons were thus given much better opportunities to understand the art behind taking photographs. During the last few decades, black photographers have applied their new role as artists to express the black experience with symbolic imagery. Today the photograph is no longer a mere a tool for documenting the African American struggle; now the photograph is utilized as an artistic metaphor, that is certainly used to insightfully explain and clarify the meaning of this struggle.