Picturing Us: African American
Identity in Photography
When Truth Is Found In Our Own Backyard
Winner of the International Center for Photographys 1995 Award for
Writing on Photography, Picturing Us brings together a diverse group of
African American writers, scholars, and filmmakers in the first concerted
effort to analyze and respond to the photographic images of blacks through
history. The books contributors--including bell hooks, E. Ethelbert Miller,
Angela Davis, and others--examine the personal and public issues
embedded in family portraits and news photographs, movie stills and mug
shots.
Personal Review: Picturing Us: African American Identity in
Photography
Dr. Willis has done something terrific here. She begins assertively and
positively, naming a central problem: the depiction of black "otherness" in
historical photographic representation. She loves photography, a medium
that has "given me the opportunity to walk through history." She believes
in photography - and her understanding of the medium's power and her

ability to teach it to maximum effect are at the heart of this successful
book. Eighteen contemporary African American artists, writers, poets,
professors, and critics contributed essays. As a jumping-off point, the
contributors begin with a photograph of their choosing. There are around
fifty photos in this book, one image often leading to another. In some
cases, the stories are easier to come by than the photos. Vertamae
Smart-Grosvenor writes, "If family stories were photographs, I'd need a
small museum to house them, but a shoebox could house all the photos I
have of my family." Her amazing grandmother gazes forthrightly at the
photographer, but it's the remarkable family stories that are left.Big themes
challenge the reader. Family histories, objective and subjective views of
African American culture, suffering and diaspora are, not surprisingly,
woven through many of these essays. Some of the photos are well-known;
others, not. Contributors chose family photos, and others present
personally experienced public images. Robert A. Hill writes on Marcus
Garvey, mentioning that through the 1920s there was a huge and
important annual parade in Harlem - in which a contemporary newspaper
reported that "fifty thousand Negroes of all ranks and stations in life and
from every part of the globe - there were princes, high officials of various
governments, [...] were in the line of march." (p. 190). Angela Davis
regards her own image on 1970 "Wanted" poster. There are
daguerreotypes, news photography, and portraiture. In some cases, the
absence of photos - and of visual evidence - is the compelling theme.St.
Clair Bourne analyzes African American images in film, including the
(cinematic) birth of stereotypes. A gorgeous and confident man exuding
"carefree masculine identity," bell hooks' young father before he became a
father, is the introductory image in her absorbing essay. E. Ethelbert
Miller's "In My Father's House There Were No Images," is sad and
disturbing. Disarmingly, he writes, "When you are the baby of the family,
seldom do you know what is going on around you," and then proceeds to
show that he knew very, very much. His story is compassionate, brilliant
and wise. Carla Williams' "The Erotic Image is Naked and Dark," begins
with a French daguerreotype from the 1850's in order to discuss physicality
and representations of sexuality. Jacquie Jones writes about a photo of a
1930's lynching that as an eleventh grader she spotted in her (integrated)
high school textbook "reproduced carelessly in the tome, added as an
afterthought to whatever the text was (...)" recording for us the awful
moment in which she, in fact, understood the 'banality of evil.' The image,
she guesses, was not so unsettling to the white world - and, worse, that
the spectators in the photo were, in all likelihood, still very much alive.
Jones' deconstruction of her experiences of "intense, personal racism" is at
the heart of her essay. There are contributors' notes at the end, and
detailed captions for each photograph. A great and beautiful book.
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