Kinship & Community: Selections from the Texas African American Photography Archive

Throughout the twentieth century, nearly every small town in the United States boasted a local studio photographer. These skilled image makers were dedicated to recording the people and events of their communities. Much of this vernacular visual culture has been dispersed or destroyed. Kinship & Community takes a look at a rare slice of that history, focusing on the work of Black photographers working in urban neighborhoods and rural villages across eastern Texas from 1944 to 1984.

Central to the exhibition is the role of the community photographer, who documents, even shapes, a close-knit place by emphasizing the people and rituals of everyday life: portraits, parties, rodeos, church meetings, parades, political gatherings, and school photos. Drawn from the Texas African American Photography Archive, the works span some of the most volatile and consequential years of the civil rights movement, collectively showing the daily experiences of Black life in Texas against the backdrop of segregation and a rapidly changing world.

Kinship & Community: Selections from the Texas African American Photography Archive is organized by the Center for Photography at Woodstock and curated by Nicole R. Fleetwood, independent curator and Paulette Goddard Professor at New York University, with research assistance from Eva Cilman and Anisa Jackson. The exhibition is co-presented by the California African American Museum and Art + Practice as part of CAAM at A+P, a five-year collaboration.