Read up to (but not including) Chapter X (10) for next class.
Consider the following prompt: “Because Frederick Douglass was an atypical slave, and later became an abolitionist, he is not a credible source of information regarding the ‘peculiar institution’.” Agree or disagree, using specific evidence (quotes and page numbers). This essay has not been assigned yet.
6-7:00 pm at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College via Zoom (free)
Image: Aaron Turner, Seen, of light and legacy, from the Black Alchemy Vol.2 series, 2022
"Join us for a virtual talk conversation between Refracting Histories artist Aaron Turner and photography scholar Shawn Michelle Smith. Turner and Smith will discuss Frederick Douglass as the most photographed person of the 19th century, as well as his prescient views on the power of photography for shattering false narratives. Smith is professor of visual and critical studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois."
Photo by Joel Sternfeld, 1978
“Photography has always been capable of manipulation. Even more subtle and more invidious is the fact that any time you put a frame to the world, it’s an interpretation. I could get my camera and point it at two people and not point it at the homeless third person to the right of the frame, or not include the murder that’s going on to the left of the frame. You take 35 degrees out of 360 degrees and call it a photo. There’s an infinite number of ways you can do this: photographs have always been authored.” -- Joel Sternfeld, 2004