The New York Times LENS Blog has recently brought us work by Frank Stewart (see image above, made in Memphis) and John Simmons (see image below, made in Nashville), two major African-American photographers from Chicago who, beginning in the 1960's, made important work all over the world, and in the American South as well.
The NY Times profile gives us the background of these photographers' early beginnings in Chicago, their development as photographers, and their current joint show of work at the Wilmer Jennings Gallery and the Kenkeleba Gallery, both on New York’s Lower East Side.
Really interesting to see these folks' work, especially to see together their work made in the American South alongside their work made in Chicago, in Los Angeles, in NYC, and across Africa.
This show opened on June 4th (sorry for being slow to get it on the blog!) but you can still see it if you are in NYC, because it's up through July 29th, 2017.
To make up for my tardiness in bringing attention to this important show, I'll give you a bit more of the NY Times' profile:
“You didn’t get a
whole lot of history lessons about African-American culture in school,”
Mr. Stewart said. “My work is culturally motivated. I wanted to know
where these polyrhythms, the roots of the foods and this rich cultural
history came from.”
"Over the last five
decades, Mr. Stewart’s photographs — whether made in New Orleans, New
York or the Ivory Coast — have explored the culture and traditions that
were “carried by the slaves, and kept intact in some places and morphed
into something else, like jazz, in others,” he explained.
"Many of the images in
the show were taken in the late 1960s and early ’70s, a time, Mr.
Simmons said, of “hippies, artists, poets and antiwar protests.” He
remembers “wearing a beret, listening to jazz” and wanting to be “a
creative spirit” and express himself through photography.
(Archie Shepp in Nashville, photo by John Simmons)
"The pair both trace their careers to the influence of Robert Sengstacke,
a photographer whose family owned The Chicago Defender, one of the
country’s most prominent black weekly newspapers. Mr. Sengstacke
taught them how to be photographers and even arranged for Mr. Simmons to
work with him at the paper.
"When Mr. Sengstacke became an
artist-in-residence at Fisk University in Nashville, he arranged for Mr.
Simmons to get a scholarship and to be his assistant there. Mr.
Stewart received a track scholarship to Middle Tennessee State, a few
miles down the road from Fisk, and the three Chicago natives spent time
together.
"Mr. Simmons studied
painting and filmmaking in school, received an M.F.A. in cinematography
at U.S.C. and works on documentary films and television shows. He is
based in Los Angeles and is a vice president of the American Society of
Cinematographers as well as an adjunct professor at U.C.L.A.
"Mr. Stewart devoted
his life to photography and moved to New York to learn from Roy
DeCarava, who arranged for his protégé to study at Cooper Union.
Granted, Mr. Stewart said that a life in photography has not always been
financially easy.
“When I first started,
all I had in my apartment was a table, a chair, an enlarger, a mattress
and a Leica camera with a 50 mm lens,” Mr. Stewart recalled.
"With a shoestring
budget, partially provided by two National Endowment for the Arts
grants, Mr. Stewart bought monthly bus tickets, which he used to travel
throughout the country documenting African-American communities.
"He also
photographed multiple times in Cuba and in Africa. He worked for the
Studio Museum of Harlem as well as for the artist Romare Bearden before
becoming a photographer for Jazz at Lincoln Center.
"Mr. Simmons worked
steadily as a cinematographer on films and television shows and
continued taking still images. But he did not publicly share his
photographs much until last year. They did, however, play a very
important part of his life, he said. Photographs are “reflective of the
culture that we live,” he said.
“Every time the
shutter is released I feel like we bring our entire life to that,” he
said.
“The interesting thing is to be able to take the most common
seemingly insignificant moment and preserve it. Then it takes on a life
of its own.”
"Just as photography
changed their lives, both men have been deeply involved in mentoring
and paying forward what Mr. Sengstacke and others did for them.
“The camera gave a
direction to our lives,” Mr. Stewart said. “It took us off the streets,
took us to college and gave both of us a responsibility to ourselves and
our community.”
Much to learn in the work of both Mr. Steward and Mr. Simmons.
I'm happy to include them both on my list of Honorary Southern Photographers.
I'm happy to include them both on my list of Honorary Southern Photographers.
