Curated by Nicole R. Fleetwood, Exhibition Spotlights Black Community Photographers

The Texas African American Photography Archive assortment demonstrates what occurs after we shift our consideration away from the distinctive moments of Black American life … and take note of the native and regional scenes the place Black folks construct livelihoods, neighborhoods, and intergenerational networks of belonging.

Nicole R. Fleetwood

A brand new exhibition from Nicole R. Fleetwood, curator, artwork historian, and Paulette Goddard Professor in Media, Culture, and Communication, gives a uncommon glimpse into the historical past of Black group photographers working throughout Texas from 1942 to 1984. 

The present opened in September on the CPW gallery in Kingston, NY and shall be on view by way of January 11, 2026. Fleetwood shall be in conversation with photographer Rahim Fortune on the CPW gallery on November 16.

Kinship & Community: Selections from the Texas African American Photography Archive focuses on native photographers working in each city facilities like Dallas and Houston and smaller cities in East Texas, devoted to documenting the portraits and occasions of their close-knit communities.

Fleetwood argues that these expert image-makers, in capturing the folks and rituals of on a regular basis life  — at events, rodeos, church conferences, parades, political gatherings, and in class pictures, helped to outline the vernacular Black experience in twentieth-century America. 

The exhibition is accompanied by the forthcoming publication Kinship & Community: Selections from the Texas African American Photography Archive, edited by Nicole R. Fleetwood and Brian Wallis (Aperture and Documentary Arts).

NYU doctoral candidates Eva Cilman (Media, Culture, and Communication) and Anisa Jackson (American Studies) offered analysis help.