Photography on the Color Line

W. E. B. Du Bois, Race, and Visual Culture

Nonfiction, Art & Architecture, Photography, Pictorials, Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions, Photo Essays, Portraits
Cover of the book Photography on the Color Line by Shawn Michelle Smith, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Shawn Michelle Smith ISBN: 9780822385783
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: June 7, 2004
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Shawn Michelle Smith
ISBN: 9780822385783
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: June 7, 2004
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

Through 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.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Through 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.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book The Struggle for Maize by Shawn Michelle Smith
Cover of the book Listening for Africa by Shawn Michelle Smith
Cover of the book The Social Life of Financial Derivatives by Shawn Michelle Smith
Cover of the book Countermodernism and Francophone Literary Culture by Shawn Michelle Smith
Cover of the book The Space In-Between by Shawn Michelle Smith
Cover of the book Theology and the Political by Shawn Michelle Smith
Cover of the book African Rhythms by Shawn Michelle Smith
Cover of the book Learning Places by Shawn Michelle Smith
Cover of the book Black Performance Theory by Shawn Michelle Smith
Cover of the book Essentials of the Theory of Fiction by Shawn Michelle Smith
Cover of the book Never Alone, Except for Now by Shawn Michelle Smith
Cover of the book Unsettled Visions by Shawn Michelle Smith
Cover of the book Television as Digital Media by Shawn Michelle Smith
Cover of the book Against the Law by Shawn Michelle Smith
Cover of the book Fractivism by Shawn Michelle Smith
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy