The Ebony Collection and more are offering an amazing peek into our history for the very first time.
You’ve heard the expression “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Photos have the ability to tell complex stories, convey important information and elicit emotional responses from viewers who may know nothing of the subject matter. One frame can change the world. Think of the iconic photographs that have come to symbolize a movement, a way of being or a slice of life.
Joe Rosenthal’s “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima“; Moneta Sleet Jr.’s “Deep Sorrow,” featuring Coretta Scott King at the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.; James Van Der Zee’s photo of black nationalist and pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey; Elizabeth “Tex” Williams’ war photographs; Art Kane’s “A Great Day in Harlem“; Gordon Parks’ “American Gothic“; Carrie Mae Weems’ “Kitchen Table Series“; and Jean Moutoussamy-Ashe’s photo book, Daddy and Me, featuring images of her late husband, tennis legend and civil rights activist Arthur Ashe, with their daughter, Camera.
Photos offer us a peek into unknown worlds and, in some cases, worlds we know all too well. Chronicling our lives and society, they capture history and the profound experiences of a complex world. The Johnson Publishing Co.’s Ebony Collection, now available to the public for the first time, does just that. This historic photo archive offers 2,000 photos taken over the last 70 years, documenting the rich and layered black experience in the United States.
Johnson Chairman Linda Johnson Rice curated the collection, poring over a million photographs to determine which photos would be offered to the public. Johnson Rice says she started sorting by themes in order to get through the massive task.
I started by selecting personalities that had great significance across a diverse range of disciplines, including sports, the arts, culture and history. Once the ‘who’ and the ‘what’ were determined, I literally sifted through each file we had on those subjects, photo by photo,” Johnson Rice told The Root.“Each photo had to exhibit great photography, each had to strike me in a certain way and tell a story, not only the obvious, but the not so obvious — they had to be captivating.”
The Ebony Collection showcases never-before-seen photos of Sammy Davis Jr. and Martin Luther King Jr., in addition to images of Billie Holiday, Miles Davis and Tina Turner. The collection also presents photos of historic moments in the black experience, like the March on Washington and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. More than 30 photographers are featured in the collection, including photographs taken by Moneta Sleet Jr., who won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for “Deep Sorrow,” becoming the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize, and for a black publication, Ebony magazine.
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article courtesy of TheRoot.com
