Hand painted photographs: 1840s to 1940s: Since photography’s beginnings, practitioners have sought ways to add color to their photos and for the first 100 years, this required tinting the photos by hand. This collection provides a range of examples from this period, from daguerreotypes to silver-gelatin, and focuses on two formats: enlarged, hand-painted tintypes from the late 19th century and oval “chalk photos” from the early 20th. The widespread popularity of these formats largely took over the role of folk- art painting, while making portraiture widely available across class and racial lines. Rather than being limited only to those wealthy enough to commission a painting, now anyone could have and display a portrait of themselves or their famly.
From Slavery to Jim Crow: Picturing African-Americans
Since its inception in the waning years of American slavery, photography has served many masters and many purposes: Since early in its history, it was used to reinforce racist social roles and attitudes. Over the years, however, it increasingly provided an affordable means to reinforce individual, family and community identity, pride and affection. By providing photographic examples across the arc of this varied history, this exhibit is meant to provide a prompt for discussion at a time in particular need of historical honesty.
Picturing the South: Photographs of the South or by Southern Photographers
This selection highlights photos from the collection that are specific to the Southern US, including photos by Southern photographers or photos that focus on the South as their subject matter. It includes vintage material: vernacular and fine art portraits, cabinet cards of "Southern Scenery", as well as some disturbing photos of imprisoned African Americans, and racist caricature photos of African Americans produced in the South for wide distribution. There are examples of Depression era photo-documentary work and selections of more contemporary work by Southern photographers that may or may not focus on the South exclusively.
Fine Art Photographs: Early, Modern and Contemporary
These photographs from the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries provide graphic evidence of undiluted racism, evidenced by demeaning caricatures and views of African Americans as prisoners and medical specimens. Photographs of lynchings,that give further documentation of racist terrorism and the social acceptance of that terror, are not included.
Warning: Many of these photos are disturbing and have the potential for a strong emotional response.
Indigenous peoples, including Native Americans, have long been subjects of photographs, often reflecting the stereotypes or objectives of the dominant culture, by turns shown as primitive or as examples of the noble "Vanishing Indian." None the less, these photographs can be a valuable historic, cultural and aesthetic resource and some photographers can be seen to transcend these barriers better than others. Some consider Frank Rhinehart as one such photographer and "Beyond the Reach of Time and Change: Native American Reflections on the Frank Rhinehart Collection, edited by Simon Ortiz, provides a unique discussion of some of these issues.
The Altered Image: Photo-manipulation Before Photoshop
Copy of signed limited edition boot Roll Jordan Roll with 90 hand tipped photogravures. Various platinum and earlier prints ranging from early to late work.
