Manifesting Black History from Photographic Archives
5 p.m, Curator’s talk via Zoom • Exhibit is ongoing Through March 12
Cabrillo Gallery presents “Bearing Witness: Manifesting Black History from Photographic Archives,” an online exhibit curated by Kathryn Mayo, professor of photography at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, who teaches antique photographic processes and the history of photography.
Hugh Mangum, no title, positive image from double exposure on glass plate negative, no date source: Meier, Allison. “An Itinerant Photographer’s Diverse Portraits of the Turn-of-the-Century American South.” Hyperallergic, 21 Jan. 2019
Mayo will host a Curator’s talk about the exhibit via Zoom on Sunday, Feb. 21, at 5 p.m. you can register for the talk at THIS LINK.
Mayo has mined photographic archives for years, bringing to light historical images that acknowledge the experiences and cultures of underrepresented communities of color. Her inclusive, equity-minded research manifests hidden histories in lives lived outside of the dominant culture.
From the family snapshot and the professional portrait to chronicles of photojournalism, these images can be many things — mundane, profound, tragic, uplifting, horrific, beautiful, shocking, poignant, Intimate, public, personal, political, sad, funny … they give mere glimpses into the broad spectrum of perspectives on human experience, but they bear witness to the stories that history—in the case of these images, Black history — is made of.
Photographer unknown, W. E. B. Du Bois with the Fisk University class of 1888, Gelatin Silver Print, c. 1888 source: “W. E. B. Du Bois with the Fisk University Class of 1888.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library, 2020.
In this exhibition, capital letters are used as a unified way to describe Black and White individuals and groups.
View the online gallery HERE
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The registration link and online gallery can also be reached at www.cabrillo.edu/cabrillo-gallery/bearing-witness/