In 1963, with the civil rights movement in full swing, a group of New York City–based Black photographers began meeting regularly to talk shop, listen to jazz, discuss politics, critique one another’s work, and bond over the power of their shared medium. Thus, the Kamoinge Workshop was born, a collective whose members pursued wildly varying aesthetic interests but held a mutual commitment to photography’s value as art. “Working Together,” an exhibition featuring work by fourteen key members of the Kamoinge Workshop, will be on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art through March 28. A selection of images from the show appears below.
Anthony Barboza, Kamoinge Members, 1973, gelatin silver print, 9 3/4 x 10″. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Jack E. Chachkes Endowed Purchase Fund 2020.55. © Anthony Barboza.
Adger Cowans, Footsteps, 1960, gelatin silver print, 8 1/4 × 13 1/4″. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Aldine S. Hartman Endowment Fund, 2018.201. © Adger Cowans.
Ming Smith, America seen through Stars and Stripes, New York City, New York, printed ca. 1976, gelatin silver print, 15 3/4 × 20″. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 2016.241. © Ming Smith.
James “Jimmie” Mannas, No Way Out, Harlem, NYC, 1964, gelatin silver print, mount: 15 1/8 × 11″. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment, 2019.201. © Jimmie Mannas.
Shawn Walker, Easter Sunday, Harlem (125th Street), 1972, gelatin silver print: sheet, 7 3/4 × 9 3/4″. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Photography Committee, the Jack E. Chachkes Endowed Purchase Fund, and the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation 2020.61. © Shawn Walker.
Albert Fennar, Salt Pile, 1971, gelatin silver print, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2″. Collection of Shawn Walker. © Miya Fennar and The Albert R. Fennar Archive.
Beuford Smith, Two Bass Hit, Lower East Side, 1972, gelatin silver print, sheet: 11 × 14″. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment, 2017.36. © Beuford Smith/Césaire.
“Working Together: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop” will be on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art through March 28.
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