African-American Life, Double-Exposed – NYTimes.com

African-American Life, Double-Exposed

“Through the African American Lens,” culled from a Smithsonian collection, shows how photography — and black photographers — reshaped a people’s image.

via Lens Blog: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/african-american-life-double-exposed/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog

The late 1930s image by Eliot Elisofon shows Zack Brown taking a picture of two dapper African-American men on a Harlem street. It challenged the then-dominant view of black urban life, focusing on dignity instead of suffering, self-possession instead of defeat, happiness instead of sorrow. Mr. Elisofon’s picture also reminds us of the powerful role of photography in African-American life, how the medium — and black photographers — helped reshape the image of a people.