Featured Resource: Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People

If you missed Through a Lens Darkly : Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People on PBS’ Independent Lens,  you can check it out here! The new documentary probes the recesses of American history through images that have been suppressed, forgotten, and lost.

“Inspired by Deborah Willis’s book, Reflections in Black, Through a Lens Darkly casts a broad net that begins with filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris’s family album. It considers the difference between black photographers who use the camera to define themselves, their people, and their culture and some white photographers who, historically, have demeaned African-Americans through racist imagery. The film embraces both historical material (African-Americans who were slaves, who fought in the Civil War, were victims of lynchings, or were pivotal in the Civil Rights Movement) and contemporary images made by such luminaries as Roy DeCarava, Gordon Parks, and Carrie Mae Weems. The film is a cornucopia of Americana that reveals deeply disturbing truths about the history of race relations while expressing joyous, life-affirming sentiments about the ability of artists and amateurs alike to assert their identity through the photographic lens”

Just ask for Call Number DVD7263 at the Circulation Desk.