Skip to main content
University of California Press

About the Book

A vivid and moving celebration of the ways that Black Americans have shaped and been shaped by photography, from its inception to the present day.
 
A Picture Gallery of the Soul presents the work of more than one hundred Black American artists whose practice incorporates the photographic medium. Organized by the Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota, this group exhibition samples a range of photographic expressions produced over three centuries, from traditional photography to mixed media and conceptual art.
 
From the daguerreotypes made by Jules Lion in New Orleans in 1840 to the Instagram post of the Baltimore Uprising made by Devin Allen in 2015, photography has chronicled Black American life, and Black Americans have defined the possibilities of photography. Frederick Douglass recognized the quick, easy, and inexpensive reproducibility of photography and developed a theoretical framework for understanding its impact on public discourse, which he delivered as a series of four lectures during the Civil War. It has been widely acknowledged that Douglass, the subject of 160 photographic portraits and the most photographed American of the nineteenth century, anticipated that the history of American photography and the history of Black American culture and politics would be deeply intertwined. A Picture Gallery of the Soul honors the diverse visions of Blackness made manifest through the lens of photography.
 
Published in association with the Katherine E. Nash Gallery.
 
Exhibition dates:
Katherine E. Nash Gallery: September 13–December 10, 2022.

About the Author

Howard Oransky is Director of the Katherine E. Nash Gallery, operated by the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He is editor of Covered in Time and History: The Films of Ana Mendieta.

From Our Blog

Black History Month 2023: Art and Artists

Books featuring Black artistsThroughout the month of February, UC Press will highlight books we have had the privilege to publish. Books featured will raise up Black voices, highlight the works of Black artists, bring forth the history, and speak about the issues facing the Black community.W
Read More

Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword 
Deborah Willis

Preface 
Herman J. Milligan, Jr.

Preface 
Howard Oransky

Mining the Archive of Black Life and Culture 
Cheryl Finley

A Visual Politics of Black Pleasure 
crystal am nelson

Why We Wear a Suit to Do the Work 
Seph Rodney

Plates

Notes to Plates 
Contributor Biographies 
Index