If we close our eyes and recall images of black people from earlier centuries, what is imprinted in our memories? Do we see elegance, dignity, refinement, beauty, intelligence—all facets of human subjectivity—among those used to tell the story of history and art in the West?
Frederick Douglass in the 19th century, and W.E.B. DuBois in the 20th, grappled with the constructed role of race and the long established visual representation of black people prevalent throughout the culture. They deployed photography in strategies to re-define black humanity in both perception and...
19. “Black Chronicles II” @ The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery, Harvard University | Cambridge, Mass. First shown in London at Autograph ABP, this exhibition examines images of blacks in 19th and 20th century Britain and features a recently discovered cache of more than 200 photographs, most of which have never been exhibited or published before. The portraits include diverse subjects, from well-known figures and dignitaries to traveling performers, missionaries and unidentified black Britons. All of the images were taken in British photography studios prior to 1938.
A collection of archival photographs (all taken prior to 1938) has surfaced as the result of a British research project called the Missing Chapter, which aims to “redress persistent ‘absence’ within the historical record.”
When the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art opened last fall in Harvard Square, just behind Peet’s Coffee, I was overjoyed, since there’s now somewhere in the square one can enter and leave with rich takings without being followed out the door by some officious busybody pestering you about “private property.”Read more about Artscope: A Critical Look at Black Photographic History
As an author, designer, and professor, Calderin was invited to speak on 19th-century black fashion as part of the Cooper Gallery’s new exhibit, “Black Chronicles II,” which feature photographs of various subjects from artists to royalty. Prior to his Nov. 15 talk, Calderin spoke with the Crimson about his thoughts on the exhibit and his experiences as a leader in fashion.
“Guess who was the most photographed American of the nineteenth century.” Fletcher University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Studies, prepares for the surprise on my face.
The Hutchins Center for African and African American Research is hosting this fall a photography exhibition that displays previously buried archival photographs of black subjects in late 19th century Britain.
“Black Chronicles II,” as the exhibition is called, is the continuation of a similar project looking to address the absence of cultural diversity in the Victorian historical narrative.
"You see black men and women depicted as they wanted to be and … it’s such a stark contrast to what we know is happening in this country at the time, that it’s very, very poignant."
Not all of these images are of the everyday sort, but the fact that so many are seems far more exotic than the subjects’ skin color. We see married couples, men in uniform, a black butler and white maid (with their white employers), two bishops, a Salvation Army major, people in their Sunday finery (there are at least three top hats in the show). The fact that nearly half the subjects are listed as “Unidentified sitter” indicates not just the relative social unimportance of these men and women (the names of the bishops and major we know) but also their ubiquity....Read more about Boston Globe: 'Black and white photographs of Victorian England'
“We are not what we seem.” When the iconic novelist Richard Wright wrote those words, in 1940, he was describing the African-American experience. As a stunning new exhibit at the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery shows, the complexity of seeing and identity took its own twists on the other side of the Atlantic when the relatively new art of photography began producing images of people of color in Victorian England. In more than 100 photographs, including a striking set that has been lost for more than 120 years, “Black Chronicles II” reveals a mash-up of racist imagery and cultural tropes that in many... Read more about Harvard Gazette: 'Life behind the Pose'
An exhibit debuting Wednesday at the Cooper Gallery of African & African-American Art at Harvard University features photographs of Blacks living in Victoria-era England.
Rare, striking and never-before-seen portraits of black citizens in Victorian-era England are going on display for the first time in the U.S., and organizers say the photographs have a powerful message for contemporary Americans riven by racism.
“There’s a healing aspect to seeing these exquisite images,” said Vera Ingrid Grant, director of the Cooper Gallery of African & African-American Art at Harvard University. The show, “Black Chronicles II,” opens there Wednesday and runs through Dec. 11.
“Black Chronicles II,” an exhibition of photographs of black subjects in Britain in the late 1800s to early 1900s, will be shown to an American audience for the first time starting Sept. 2 at the new Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African American Art in Cambridge, Mass.
“We are not what we seem.” When the iconic novelist Richard Wright wrote those words, in 1940, he was describing the African-American experience. As a stunning new exhibit at Harvard University’s Ethelbert Cooper Gallery shows, the complexity of seeing and identity took its own twists on the other side of the Atlantic when the relatively new art of photography began producing images of people of color in Victorian England.
This fall, Black Chronicles II, an exhibition showcasing never-before-seen portraits of 19th and early 20th century Black British citizens, makes its U.S. premiere at Harvard's The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery for African & African-American Art. The show is curated by London-based arts charity Autograph ABP and produced in collaboration with the Hulton Archive’s London Stereoscopic Company, a division of Getty Images and one of the oldest and largest archives in the world.
A thousand words are cool and all, but the creators behind a new exhibit at Harvard University’s Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African-American Art in Cambridge, Mass., are hoping that visitors walk away with even more to ruminate on.
