Photography on the Color Line: W. E. B. Du Bois, Race, and Visual CultureThrough a rich interpretation of the remarkable photographs W. E. B. Du Bois compiled for the American Negro Exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exposition, Shawn Michelle Smith reveals the visual dimension of the color line that Du Bois famously called “the problem of the twentieth century.” Du Bois’s prize-winning exhibit consisted of three albums together containing 363 black-and-white photographs, mostly of middle-class African Americans from Atlanta and other parts of Georgia. Smith provides an extensive analysis of the images, the antiracist message Du Bois conveyed by collecting and displaying them, and their connection to his critical thought. She contends that Du Bois was an early visual theorist of race and racism and demonstrates how such an understanding makes the important concepts he developed—including double consciousness, the color line, the Veil, and second sight—available to visual culture and African American studies scholars in powerful new ways. Smith reads Du Bois’s photographs in relation to other turn-of-the-century images such as scientific typologies, criminal mugshots, racist caricatures, and lynching photographs. By juxtaposing these images with reproductions from Du Bois’s exhibition archive, Smith shows how Du Bois deliberately challenged racist representations of African Americans. Emphasizing the importance of comparing multiple visual archives, Photography on the Color Line reinvigorates understandings of the stakes of representation and the fundamental connections between race and visual culture in the United States. |
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Photography on the Color Line: W. E. B. Du Bois, Race, and Visual Culture Shawn Michelle Smith No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
According African American albums Ameri American Negro Exhibit appear archive argued Askew Atlanta University Black body Bois's camera Center century challenge chapter child claims Collection color line constructed context crime criminal critical cultural Daniel Murray Collection depicted describes double consciousness Du Bois's Duke University elite evidence eyes face Fanon figure force frame function gaze gendered Georgia Negro Harper's Henry History idealized identified identity images important included individuals James John later Library of Congress look lynching marked meaning middle-class mother Negro American notes photographs PLATE political portraits posed position postcard present Race racial reading representation represented Reproduced scene scientific sexual sketches social Souls of Black spectacle standing studies subjects suggests Thomas tion turn Types of American University Press Veil viewers vision visual Visual Culture Voice W. E. B. Du Bois Washington woman women Writings York young
Bibliographic information
| Title | Photography on the Color Line: W. E. B. Du Bois, Race, and Visual Culture a John Hope Franklin Center Book |
| Author | Shawn Michelle Smith |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Duke University Press, 2004 |
| ISBN | 0822333430, 9780822333432 |
| Length | 225 pages |
| Subjects | › › Photography / Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions / General Photography / Photoessays & Documentaries Photography / Subjects & Themes / Portraits & Selfies |
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