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Title details for Where We Find Ourselves by Deborah Willis - Available

Where We Find Ourselves

The Photographs of Hugh Mangum, 1897–1922

by Deborah Willis
Michael Lesy
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Self-taught photographer Hugh Mangum was born in 1877 in Durham, North Carolina, as its burgeoning tobacco economy put the frontier-like boomtown on the map. As an itinerant portraitist working primarily in North Carolina and Virginia during the rise of Jim Crow, Mangum welcomed into his temporary studios a clientele that was both racially and economically diverse. After his death in 1922, his glass plate negatives remained stored in his darkroom, a tobacco barn, for fifty years. Slated for demolition in the 1970s, the barn was saved at the last moment — and with it, this surprising and unparalleled document of life at the turn of the twentieth century, a turbulent time in the history of the American South.
Hugh Mangum's multiple-image, glass plate negatives reveal the open-door policy of his studio to show us lives marked both by notable affluence and hard work, all imbued with a strong sense of individuality, self-creation, and often joy. Seen and experienced in the present, the portraits hint at unexpected relationships and histories and also confirm how historical photographs have the power to subvert familiar narratives. Mangum's photographs are not only images; they are objects that have survived a history of their own and exist within the larger political and cultural history of the American South, demonstrating the unpredictable alchemy that often characterizes the best art — its ability over time to evolve with and absorb life and meaning beyond the intentions or expectations of the artist.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Documentary Arts and Culture, Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 8, 2018

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781469648323

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781469648323
      • File size: 33890 KB

  • Accessibility

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    Conformance

    • No information is available.

    Navigation

    • Table of contents to all chapters of the text via links.

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from March 1, 2019

      Appearing alongside an exhibition at Duke University, this fascinating work showcases a long-forgotten, itinerant portraitist whose rediscovered archive contains a stereotype-defying, multicultural cast of players. Originating from the tobacco boomtown of Durham, NC, Hugh Mangum (1877-1922) traveled a rail circuit throughout the Carolinas and Virginia, often setting up shop in a tent on the outskirts of town. The expressions he captured, with empathy and wit, draw in viewers like few photographic subjects ever have. Working from glass negatives rescued from an old barn, cocurators Sartor and Harris astutely reproduced the preserved photographs with evidence of damage and neglect still present. Thus we see Mangum's deeply human portraits of these long-dead, ordinary people through flawed, exfoliating emulsions: veils of decay emphasizing a fleeting rapport between Mangum and his sitters. Many plates contain multiple portraits reflecting his diverse clientele, a guileless yet beguiling blend of black and white. Thoughtful essays succinctly address the nearly unanswerable aesthetic and historical questions raised, complemented by dozens of large-scale, captivating photos. VERDICT Interesting on so many levels, this is Americana at its most compelling, real buried treasure brought to life.--Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L.

      Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
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subjects

Languages

  • English

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