African American Vernacular Photography
Selections from the Daniel Cowin Collection
December 9, 2005 - February 26, 2006
Little is known about the private lives of African Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their social transactions took place for the most part outside of public view and often away from the camera's lens. This exhibition offers a glimpse into the rarely seen everyday lives of African Americans through a variety of photographic genres and poses: formal studio portraits, casual snapshots, images of children, images of uniformed soldiers, wedding portraits, and "Southern-views" that were made for tourist consumption. While some of the sitters were celebrities of the day, the majority of subjects are unnamed Americans. The images attest to photography's ability to record personal histories for private uses and to create historical documents. This exhibition and its catalogue explore ICP's Daniel Cowin Collection of African American History, a trove of more than 2,000 postcards, stereographs, cartes-de-visite, tintypes, albumen prints, and gelatin silver prints. Taken together, these ephemeral images provide an important window into African American cultural life from 1860 to about 1930.
International Center of Photography
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