Travel Pick: Art and Archaeology in United States Reflections in Black
Reflections in Black: Smithsonian African American Photography UNITED STATES DETROIT • Detroit Institute of Arts • Ongoing
Over 300 images by 120 African American photographers document the black experience from slavery through the Civil Rights Era to the emergence of the current African American middle class. More importantly, the images on view offer a visual and aesthetic record that differs considerably from the usual portrayal of black Americans by whites in the media and elsewhere during this period. Visitors familiar with past shows devoted to African American photographers, such as the one held two years ago at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York, will recognise the marvellous images of Marvin Smith and others documenting the elite of the Harlem Renaissance in the years after World War I. Spanning from the daguerreotypes by abolitionist J. P. Ball (b. 1825) to the wry contemporary images by Carrie Mae Weems, this exhibition offers a more extensive historical survey. The exhibition is accompanied by the book Reflections in Black: A History of African American Photography from 1840 to the Present.
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