Alabama State Council of the Arts; Moments of Dignity: P.H. Polk

production funding for moments of dignity was provided by the alabama state council on the arts he was born to a working class family in bessemer alabama he went to tuskegee institute to become an artist but he did that painting houses and eventually settle for photography his education and photography changed his life and how race of people saw themselves for a while he worked in the shipyards of moby ill and on the railways of chicago that somehow he was always drawn back to photography this amazing bands my grandfather teach technically are polls work is so outstanding to me because if he's as photography it is the equivalent of the finest marble world painting another way you

probably sat through their eyes my grandfather's pictures captured the essence of historic tuskegee and the changing face of america and within his images you will find the joys and sorrows of middle class and poverty stricken african american people struggling to find their place in the rural south excuse me if you look at these images you have to realize is a whole nother world of what it means to be african americans country outside assistance most african americans grandpa's photographs of reflective moments etched in time dignified moments and injuring hundreds of pride and perseverance these images have to have a certain power and then that somehow who feel connected to something that has this very dignified and feel very good about it and it has the

word it usually more than any other work with an a when i was a child i remember spending time in tuskegee with my grandfather at that time i didn't understand my grandfather's profession an obsession he was just granted at a man took pictures for a living later i discovered he was part of a great photography tradition that began at tuskegee institute a legacy that began as a dream to educate and liberate african americans i also discovered my grandfather was deeply concerned about how those people were pro trade he desperately wanted to eliminate the demeaning images all too common in photographs and drawings the early years and many images of blacks were these stereotypical images that were you glasser uses

characters and so the negative images of blacks were the place in terms of telling this extended history that was labeled as other blacks were not like anyone else and so that they were mainly enslaved they were not middle class you're not working in an educated many of the images also have negative connotations that were quote humorous images that were used with tax negroes can never have impartial portraits at the hands of white artist it seems to us next to impossible for white men to take the likeness of light man without most grossly exaggerated their pictures and the reason is obvious are just like all the other white persons have developed a theory dissecting the distinctive features of and the rooms physiology frederick douglass april seventeenth eighteenth fourteen at

shortly after tuskegee institute was established in eighteen anyone booker t washington traveled around the country trying to raise money for his struggling school during his speaking engagements washington needed a way to present the extraordinary work being done in tuskegee and to show how his remarkable academic and vocational programs are changing lives washington's interest in photography and what we could call an early period i think had to do with huge fans of the importance of what was happening at first thing i think he felt it to be documenting i think he failed to certain extent there perhaps he could direct the nature of that documentation by having someone in an official capacity who answered to him in the early nineteen hundreds washington hired well known photographers like arthur they go and francis benjamin johnston the dough

and one as photographer is best known for his portraits of washington's public and family life and what same day here was to chronicle the new development of the school as well as foul ability on a lot of his tortoise so what we find in the collection better but girls are pictures of the faculty and staff are pictures of booker t in his home the pictures of his family members just a documented washington's work at hampton tuskegee institute she received her first camera from an old family friend george eastman of eastman kodak company johnson was also considered the unofficial white house photographer during the cleveland and tattered ministrations you booker t washington use photography to help his mission in terms of the nineteen hundred x paris exposition with france's

benjamin johnson son photographs were put on display of the hampton institute and in paris about black life so they use photography as propaganda but also to show how the progress of the race and so we're thinking of it in washington wanted to see higher photographers to travel with him to document his activity you can feel the attention on the excitement in that photograph for whatever that occasion might be on his charisma ken is very evident in the photographs that had that taken of them whether it's in the inning movement toward the crowd which a museum around the bottle pitchers particularly the ones from mt that were taken shortly before his death in louisiana that animation of his body is

there enough photographs so i think the photograph tells you a story that words can't quite explain washington truly understood the power and importance of the still image so he wanted to offer photography as a part of tuskegee is vocational training classes in nineteen oh five washington wrote george eastman describing his plans and the need for support i very much wish we could we could not only usable carbon and much of our work here to an advantage we could train students who would go out in the status of calories in different parts of the south well there is prejudice in many directions in the matter of photography strange to say a colored man would have almost as good an opportunity to succeed as a white man and in the south who are succeeding and obviously the people who founded testing used to felt that it was

important for the young people that went there both to have an academic training intervene in the intellectual saying that they were realistic enough to realize that you're living in doing that program with the sort of quality that they did they took that trade beyond the level of the trade and really took it to the level of a minecraft in an art and that's what you pope actually did because i'm really he was experienced enough in humans old and had done this really really raise the level of his achievement in nineteen sixteen a year after washington's death eastman agreed to fund a director for tesco use photography department after an extensive search the institute hired see him badly well known photographer from new york that his reputation and talents quickly elevated the status of tuskegee is photography division department continued to promote booker t

washington's philosophy of education and self determination i think of the black press and weird at the images to put on the cover of the prices of opportunities of the messenger you know you know the unions than they were images that were created by people i can see him daily tuskegee was central in talking about race and educating clients about the experience and education nothing impresses me more than looking back over the years at these photographs and you can sense the high expectation that was placed on the students who were there and they were they were expected to lead trustee and make tuskegee pro in nineteen sixteen my grandfather and warned in tuskegee institute he took his father's a middle name protests but most people just called him ph grandpa became the lead musician schools thing he and

william levi dawson renowned composer of negro spirituals were roommates and fellow band members my grandfather treasured music and worship the visual arts my ambition when i went to just thinking i want to be an artist and now when i arrive at a test he didn't teach art so they put me in a shop they say you can really slow in the mix and pneumonia cause if you be going to asia my grandfather was born in bessemer alabama in at ninety eight he was the youngest of four children and his father take approaches poker died of black lung disease when my grandfather was just eleven his mother christine support the family through her job as a seamstress she worked day and night trying to provide for her four children eventually she was able to send granddad a couple institute well known boarding school in birmingham recognized with high academic standards or it it seventeen grandpa was the first student to register for classes at tuskegee institute talk

with the provision when it officially opened he say photography until nineteen ninety nine to see him at the department's director in nineteen twenty grandpa left ski and move to a wheel where he worked in the shipyards trying to earn enough money to join his family who had moved to chicago while working immobile where particles one hundred and five dollar correspondence photography course he had steadied rembrandt the great european tour in nineteen twenty two ramp up finally saved enough money and was able to join his family in chicago where he worked as a painter for the pullman company they're painted me a lot of the show so i couldn't find a job as a photographer when i went to chicago and sixteen eighteen elderly and as i was a fan of the great about nelson says so i took his job at after grandpa was established in chicago he trained

with fred johnson a prominent like photographer jensen time and creative thought process and the negative retention techniques by nineteen twenty six grand get a decent photography would be his vocation and the driving force in his life he began earning extra money by going door to door taking portraits of young children also a nineteen twenty six he married my grandmother margaret lyons thompson they went on to have nine children when he was in chicago says that when you started trying to supplement his living by taking pictures of children that he would go into areas where he could see mothers with the children and he'd offer to take pictures free and you take him and thirteen new it took them that the mothers reported going to see other children and then he could sell them to package the pitches as a man an artist deeply rooted in the south my grandfather was not happy in

chicago he longed for terse geeky when he was in the south he saw things that others could not say he saw the beauty and pride in the people of alabama's black belt in nineteen twenty seven my grandfather finally decided to return to test the key he collected the family savings and ninety eight dollars packed their bags and headed south it was great it was back in tuskegee he opened a portrait studio he also started photographing what he called the old characters of macon county he did lend themselves to a point if you're in the studio all in addition mcclatchey people who worked on the capital of the hospital visitors <unk> in the day we went out into the book you actually are going to get a man with ted attentions will raise pants and voltaire but all play he built himself to live in reality that he found oh sure

i don't think it's so much dignity as i think he saw mobility in the end i think he saw him and this is an honest raw noble people and he wanted to show that he wanted to capture their i think he thought they were as different as individuals there's any other group of people and i think he wanted to capture that but i also think he thought they have great faces i mean is that we're afraid of handling never hesitate to take and sometimes it was really hard to get them to polls they just some get up and run when you just picture it could get sick and that he felt it was important to teach to take pictures in memory to cajole him into getting a picture taken as a regular person out in the boston area grandad signature most famous photograph is one of the old characters a simple portrait of a modest woman he titled the boss

lunches with a toaster that they had that they paid so says so much and others say about the wampum she is no one who must be obeyed marcus the one who must be obeyed an outlet lost because it reminds me a home run the box is a prime example of how he did not extract whatever they brought to the table from you know she had a certain arrogance and a party and suspicious that's sami to that he captured the boss this is an important image because it's an image where a

woman is can take taking control of her image we're looking directly into the other images that people always see the negative image of a big rat winner has a negative stereotype but here a woman that reverses the stereotype a woman with her hand on her hip fans are ahead and looking into the camera to say this is why in this is my story as a breadwinner and you can see that she's in charge of her physical being impossibly her family in addition to taking pictures of making candies elderly citizens grand that began photographing dr george washington carver at the time carter was the nation's greatest agricultural scientist required persuasion booker t washington had convinced carver to join tij skis faculty and at ninety seven the most of the stories i've heard my grandfather dr carter had a special

working relationship carver or that hit a very fertile alm ground for him to work as a photographer and he was known are people were interested in copper and people were interested in seeing carver and that presented an opportunity to the nc talk and it was so beautiful dr khalid told me how you take all the pictures of be that you can because one day they can make you famous well really interesting collection from the people on and one of george washington carver with white students and no wipers of lovers of the sublime the teacher there will decide his car and alien

segregated doing i don't think another photographer was able to make art or a scarf in front of the camera as lt he he developed an ability to toe later laurent and i think that had to do with pulses that more about paul ryan on the fact that he could trust to kind of a trust as a big issue you are not one word about what it would look like if it's on a busy of whatever pompeii with me on that was ok that's a tremendous respect him in power for a photographer to hang of it in nineteen twenty seven tuskegee hired mentored time to direct photography program hyman was a recognize washington dc photographer as the institute's photography division continue to grow my grandfather was hired to assist time and fortunately in nineteen thirty three granddad was promoted

and became the third director of tuskegee is the top of the department but five years later he unexpectedly left the institute and any letter a letter in china's hand it till the studio work in it laughter that didn't seem to work out on the cars the city he was a small town board there in atlanta was just too much for him but i think also to decide from this and the people and the scenery it he probably couldn't really became better now and dusky he was building a reputation my grandfather's attempt to establish a studio in atlanta wasn't overwhelming challenge so in nineteen thirty nine after spending less than a year there he decided to return to task again luckily he was hired as the official photographer for tuskegee institute then get also began taking pictures for the school's faculty and the town's mostly middle class black residents i believe he was finally eighties and was ready to make whiskey is home for life

around nineteen forty tuskegee sit out a few department officially closed as an academic unit lack of funding and declining enrollment were the culprits that was the end of an era however it was not the end for my grandfather he kept right on teaching and documenting life and testy he took my mother and my father's engagement pictures you still have two pictures of my assistant so we were growing up and it was just always there mr lee remembers a seven was dismayed was always running with a cameron is haim and a camera around his neck port took pictures of how we use every way out and then black granite pictures functions everything things aren't cannot just on campus he was always a total community photographer

everybody political he photographed the life of the community it's nothing to them either and i can't take a picture always rushing that conversation with polk award with pope sometimes if you whack a cold studio he was bouncing around doing something you know you're talking to him he's talking back to you that he's doing things bounding up the steps to reassert it to bring down some of disability police custody on in nineteen oh six thomas moore campbell graduated from tuskegee in and became the first black county extension agent in alabama campbell was responsible for running the department of agriculture's cooperated

demonstration work in macon county he was known as a proud intelligent family man with six children my grandfather took a portion of the campbell family every year it's definitely you know a family of means in terms of koch says that he was up they always photograph easter in that visit this studio and document and sit for the cameras whirled but also tell the story of this the success of the family you know the father's seated central and i think that that's something that he was interested in telling his chair and this is significant the importance of this man in his image there is if an ad into a bow the way they are positioned their relationships one to another of the father the father is so confident in that photograph it's an arrogance that we understand i think to take to talk about

something he might be doing this unique opt in to an african american photographer paul probably and this student that little nuance that there is a that there's an attitude that he could capture that we bought our own arrogance but wouldn't quite the arrogance is that the kind of felt confidence so he has a sense of understanding the hand tracking the professors on campus they're the wives and daughters and sons of the city professors on campus but also and poor people they're the center say about class and culture and social hierarchy and educational levels in what people did for a living in our head what they did when they enjoyed themselves but where the social structures of the time that he i was i was recording all of that has tremendous

value in terms of yelling some history of the time flies it's extra security that work are there faster than a particular unit then i call cultural file their eggs is about blacks in the south in particular it boils totally against their that cultural assumption i think it shows a black surgeon in the rules out that are very diverse artichoke blacks in the rural south in the situation where they have sophisticated are well educated some friends and i were talking about his balls and so what was it that made testing good for us personally as

always suicide bombers forty alone without family didn't make it didn't have handcuffs but it gave us a strong stealing of who we were who we are that we still ahead three in nineteen forty one eleanor roosevelt came to speak to the army's flight program for black pilots mandate took this photograph of a first lady in seat african descent civilian pilot in flight instructor according to many historians picture was instrumental in persuading president roosevelt for the tuskegee airman during world war two however the photographer with the politically is the place the patients

its sales on was trying to say that pope had a good eye they have to understand the nature of his job as the staff photographer and just at tuskegee he was always a long ago he was he had to get off a shot very quickly had to capture that moment in just a split second and yet obviously and i am an artist here was a lot of frame that composition very quickly and and make it tell us something and he could do that and at the same time in his photographic studio he aimed for saying his interest in telling his tales artistically and casting people and that was flattering light and probably the most important event looked at a

good bit of information is at or above their biggest documentary so much of the war like a paycheck they have a pale equality to where you have mastered light and he couldn't get the desired result and i said why i mean he never lost that all is what i'll call that their desire to the ci an image that hey at all the qualities of someone might remember its planes are what he talked about creating a photograph of the dark side

he very much was with the same effect than when someone like rembrandt and other bro painters would begin to say they wouldn't think is most traders about form and then how to bring this form are sort of developed that form about the relationship of lights two darts they were all you think of how the leverage that follow out of the darkness and talk if you look at his photograph of the very much the raft from that same sensibility understanding that out of shadow and bringing forth out of shadow in july that this is a very dramatic and powerful way in which to technically think about an image he can appreciate where light fell and he can appreciate the intensity of light that he would adjust whatever limitations film provided so typically compensate and take advantage of whatever the situation was my favorite photographed by none is my

grandmother end of the margaret blanche paul photograph from nineteen forty six inches in the great big picture hat and great great and funny story about that one so yeah you look at this picture and it's you know it's very very dramatic end and she's absolutely gorgeous and she was absolutely yummy probably the angriest that she had ever been at him and the reason why she's looking away from the camera is because she and when i look at the sole strike day because if you look at it in things like are certain contours of her face of the pa and that's on her i'll look tale om the tilt the brand the edge of the brim of her hair those of pure white areas but then her shoulder is completely lost it the total blackness what's interesting about polk years he achieves

it many of his photographs degrees of darkness there almost pure black in a photographer can tell you to have to have a single image that that is completely black areas in it but also in that same image in that same picture plane you have to why bats a black and white the part of his brain and is very difficult to achieve because usually in achieving that deep deep tone you lose some of that what what what what we call that that high that high resolution of white polk was able to really sort of maintain that balance hack of all the pictures i've seen the trend that my favorite is the silhouette of mild of the everest cigarettes as light and imagery of very dramatic my father cornelius amount of the tour that also portrayed but then there's the beat the bills

why content quite feel aware of the front of the space and then there's three levers of small half of a favorite that's out of them advocates complain that that sort of us from tearing up with the side of his face you just did it again and again and again so much so that you know oh it's a style it's delivered it's not an accident was occurring in the dark room or in the in the making of his maybe that is something he is determined to which he will fall in that entire less and she went in that he said the poor we wanted them and that the photograph them took them back to his own lebanon's own and develop

them they may and then perceived threat and to get that is that for human use it when men do all three phrases that us pressure law there is a way out on baca developing an interesting so i'd say that miraculous with equally have to work with an agenda what he would do were fascinating portrait of a unit more than india's to come out of his barn rule when he came out there were the girls human alter ego for both cuomo well you've got group value of about a windup girl i think my father really considered auch take down the law i think that there were some things that he'd do that he do to support the pictures that he may consider that are

polls of the ones that i wasn't interested the iphone is everywhere on everything knew was scattered and i fell into a box of photographs on in the polls now and not just how you know you're getting these are these are pictures of george washington carver don't you think you should do something with them i started to get while them photographing your pudding i put them in some sort of orders is not don't do that don't do that is that the plane time for that when i'm gone said what i wanna do right now is just leave things as they are is that the disney the spirit because neither the inspiration for was always pulling up for those jobs want to calm place that you might make a good spoke if you were his friend that is that it took him too long to get your pitcher's bag but because of a

public figure that go with a friend you could be a little bit while you did do some things he made a little money and you know it did your family gets a lot out of it only the money that is she deserved it maybe you on the bed but his men and of the numbers in a moment a great business at the same time my grandfather who's documenting life intensity seems vanderzee was photographing the glory days of harlem in nineteen seventeen and as he opened his harlem studio and began taking pictures and photographing the community is activated just like gray and then you took pictures of everything church groups family gatherings weddings and funerals looking at the pictures it's obvious to me that my grandfather and fantasy were driven by the same call in the same way that then is he was trying to show the beautiful in harlem i think pope was trying to show the beautiful in all its aspects intensity

from that the struggling artist an informed but very intelligent and in their own kind of wisdom person like that the farmers in those people to the campbell family sitting in the audience at that beautiful woman that woman in the evening down on the side of over shoulder to the back one of the interesting similarities between them is the fact that while they involve focused on areas that were very specific lyric easy to identify historically at the same time they were each creating the same kind of models you might say all vanderzee in in doing what ed davis portrays harlem characters that really could be identified with other urban situations are despite the uniqueness of tuskegee in some ways

call to a certain extent was doing something very similar with the rule south giving us are the rule his specific treatment of trustee aren't good enough tidbits that could be transferred to other areas in fact i think it's good that he did what he did he stay he took his community and he spoke about people universally the same with just about to ski that african americans is just like and i think that's what a great artist does they talk about really are and who they are and in doing that they speak university people call my people he was a people person and he would give you the friendly orders when he was photographing you you accepted that you'd rearrange a cold think would tell you if you head on something that didn't come out

we'll feel great says he thinks about three the inside composition but what's the emotions and all of the person he seems to bring in now is very easy for you to do it was easy for him to have because there was no fear they'll get out of a prison where did they even didn't set as a private moment madam says when they're living in the mirror and they see something that they like about the reason of the ghetto wonder what about never catches this world is what i've been told local authorities will meet graham dance class when he was known for positioning and lighting women to create some of the most glamorous photographs some people would even say anyone who speaks

softly for it's you i mean thirty he was illiterate he never lost his last vote for women are he didn't mean i don't think he met a woman who was a beautiful day and he was not we looked at the telescope operate it inspired that he was a charming guy n are somewhat manipulative you've got to live a beautiful blonde woman in fiction you know my reaction was no reaction there any big concern so that suggests that it's more effective than the usual five i remember once in the studio he was photographing a woman he's says you know

she just was a little too steph has a mystical said their use the sun the plan she says most support the management so he started still messing with his camera stuff and china get focused and he'd look up again she still i still today says you know you must be a plan she sometimes opponents right knee bubble some you can be a twenty eight foot sometimes about the matter why he's among cause what moment he looked at a beautiful effect that the crew and then she gets it and you know i'm not melting that moment a melting that he's set of islamic architecture he says polanski just and it's not just women were beautiful but just the way the way he shows you know it's just so talented and this is a way to get poor people and

how in a sense of the personality he says and then the way you capture what the middle class is trying to say about them since i don't know the only song we're still forming if they weren't tested and the most beautiful women in the world because if you look at the photographs of the women in the church alice to a person they're out there just absolutely explicit and i think i was just happy guest of being able to arm fashion line around a person's face to carve in a sense i'm through shadow and light on the features of a person so

says during the nineteen sixties my grandfather focused his camera on more important matters he documented tuskegee institute student protest movement and the civil rights leaders who visited the campus during this crucial period i believe graham dance photography took on a whole new meaning without sacrificing his artistic standards this story it's good say that was somewhat a political arm i think first and foremost it was interested in taking pictures and certainly there were a lot of armed people that he encountered them but aggressive to scan if an aggressive ticket martin luther king are they're not particularly aesthetically meaningful photographs but they're good documentary

images i think he had an understanding to certain innate understanding of the significance of this objects was to poke i learned as one those people who claim to have the love for people and i think that that's what comes through those photographs and that love for people as something that would give you looks at that picture pardon powers is that you have been told how to feel about the person that you're looking for and i think that the cost of the dea the strength the dignity of the characters in the photographs and the cost of the photographers point of view do you predisposed to wrap your mind and wrap your arms around that image with no i think it's the power of his images in nineteen sixty four just a higgins jr came to test the institute to major in business administration they'd let into my grandfather in his life changed forever just about a camera from grandpa to

take his very first pictures of his relatives and brought in alabama and ed became the wise teacher and higgins was the aspiring student today just as a staff photographer for the new york times his photographs have appeared and look life and a host of other national magazines gesture is also the author of for photography books related to african american themes very closely oh cool and influence politically an influence on human perspective and influenced and television perspective of looking for big media people are come across my chest the mayor will be the pope's most outstanding protege and i think in the end tester is early photographs and his

later images it continues its is he at continuum of looking at the older people and gesture i mean you know it has that experience of documenting an older people and i mean i think it's an experience of following in the tradition of a polk and so i look at tesla's photographs of women i'm in no matter where in africa or in the south when the north and you can have a feeling that he has been influenced by him by most folks in this is the dvd says that though no one of his proudest moments was chester higgins june and the cost just a heated seat seems was going to carry all the photographic tradition when you look at justice where it evokes a memory in terms of i don't know the people and i know the experience i know oh i know the backdrop

so that that's what i see in his work and i think that's the same kind of serious when you look it's about memory and preserving in nineteen eighty my grandfather won the black photographers annual testimonials or a year later he received a fellowship from the national endowment for the arts in nineteen eighty three forty two years after he photographed eleanor roosevelt in cheek anderson's historic flight he was a special guest at the launching of the specialty out of the first african american astronaut onboard the owners were finally coming all because my grandfather had the vision and sensitivity to capture those moments i think he should be remembered as someone yeah like alexander said i came i saw i conquered he came and he saw and he documented

the reality of the african american to ski community taken responsibility for themselves one thing to help people would say is that this was a man who was a very talented man who enjoys his work and you play obviously his heart and soul into making these photographs and in doing so really preserved in a little bit of history nate pictures pictures that was the thing i had to do i'm not sure whether or not he was as concerned about making history as he was about his own great legacy of the photographer he saw their dignity because he saw any common person and i think because he instinctively he believes that there was a dignity and beauty and every person and so he could take the picture here

is that you know the law that have resorted to michelle only with their government there's a marvelous poem written by langston hughes that expresses my grandfather's inspiration in photography than it is a beautiful sort of cases of my people the stars of beauty so are the eyes of my beautiful also has some beautiful also for the souls of money on december twenty ninth nineteen eighty four my grandfather died he was eighty six years old you miss a soulmate as an artist it doesn't have to be something he knew that i miss being able to go over the incidence of kentucky him

that the pages in the adventure his camera he always tell me that the pictures of accidents says things that he says you know he's done with a focus on all the great pictures an accident an error

the error these production funding for moments of dignity was provided by the alabama state council on the arts if you like more information about pitch polk's life and work copies of through these eyes a

remarkable overview of photography at tuskegee institute are available by calling one eight hundred four six three eighty eight to five