PHOTOGRAPHERS ON DOCUMENTING THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

Exhibition on View at Lambent Foundation in Lower Manhattan

For more than 30 years the New Orleans-based photographic team of Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick have been documenting the African-American experience. As part of the Pratt Photography Lectures they presented their work before a rapt audience in Higgins Hall Auditorium on December 5.
 
Much of their work depicts the social struggles, hardships, and injustice borne by African Americans in the South. The couple’s powerful images capture subjects such as field workers, prisoners, musicians, river baptisms, Mardi Gras Indians, the heroes of Hurricane Katrina, and laborers along the River Road. “It's a passion we have to expose and to show,” explained McCormick, “even though some of these images are hard to take.”
 
"Working as a team, the couple chronicles the unique traditions and deep-rooted attributes of Louisiana culture that increasingly represent a vanishing way of life," explained Stephen Hilger, chair of the Photography department. “Their images bear witness to both the celebrations and struggles of everyday events, with particular attention to the profound sense of place felt by Louisianans."

“Our work belongs to those folks,” added Calhoun. “We document all year; we go out every day because a lot of those people are stuck on back roads. We wanted to capture churches along the River Road, too, because so much history is buried in them.”
 
A significant portion of their photographic archive was damaged by the devastating floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Nonetheless, they continued to surge forward with their work. “Keith found a fridge in the street,” recalled McCormick, “and we froze the pictures.” With a grant from the Ford Foundation they set about to restore their moldy, waterlogged transparencies, finding unexpected beauty in colors that had shifted. They embraced their loss, salvaged what they could, and marveled at the results.
 
Their work has been featured in Aperture and in the landmark book Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers—1840 to the Present (W.W. Norton & Company, 2000), authored by the person who introduced their lecture, Pratt alumna Deborah Willis (M.F.A. ’80, D.F.A. Hon. ’07), chair and professor of photography and imaging at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. The lecture was followed by a response from Eva Díaz, an assistant professor in the History of Art and Design department at Pratt.
 
The evening was made possible with the support of the Lambent Foundation, where Calhoun and McCormick’s exhibition, Right to Return, River Road, NOLA Now!, curated by Shannon Brunette in partnership with L9 Center for the Arts in New Orleans, is on view through January 2013. The Lambent Foundation is located at 55 Exchange Place, Suite 406, in Lower Manhattan. Viewing of the exhibition is by appointment only. Email exhibitions@lambentfoundation.org to schedule a visit. Photo ID is required for building entry.

The event was recorded and may be viewed from January 4, 2013 on by visiting http://pelicanbomb.com.

Text: Adrienne Gyongy
Images: Courtesy of the artists and L9 Center for the Arts