Emory preserves legendary photographer’s assortment of Black life in Atlanta

Documentary photographer Jim Alexander has captured the icons and the on a regular basis of Black life, artwork, music, and social justice for almost seven a long time.

“I call myself a participant observer,” Alexander stated.  

Now 90 years previous, Alexander has taught pictures since 1968. He ran a Black arts program at Yale University within the early 70s. An project in Washington, D.C., is what introduced him to the South to remain.

“Maynard Jackson walked by, and he was standing there watching us,” Alexander stated. “He said to me, ‘You look like you know what you’re doing with that camera.’

“He stated, ‘Well, it’s worthwhile to come to Atlanta.’ That wasn’t a request; that was an order,” Alexander continued.

Jackson, the first Black mayor of Atlanta and of any major city in the South, made a commitment to the arts during his campaign. He created the Neighborhood Arts Center to showcase Black artistic expression in the city. It was the predecessor to today’s publicly funded community art centers. Alexander eventually became the photographer in residence there.

“I’m within the technique of placing an exhibit collectively of the images that I documented of the Neighborhood Arts Center and the artists there,” Alexander stated.

He developed shut friendships with famend artists and poets, together with Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, and pioneering photographer Gordon Parks.

“When Dr. King was assassinated, I said to Gordon, ‘They’re talking about us free at last, I said I’m going to just document us for 10 years.’ Gordon says, ‘Well, Jim, sounds like you have a plan, but your ass is going to starve.’ He said ‘No one is going to pay you to just run around and shoot whatever you’re going to shoot.'”

Parks was flawed about that. Alexander’s pictures has been deemed so worthwhile to Atlanta and American historical past that Emory University’s Rose Library obtained a $280,000 grant from the Getty Foundation to course of his assortment.

“When I started my role as curator of African American Collections, so many people, donors, and my colleagues told me that I needed to meet Mr. Alexander,” stated N’Kosi Oates.

The grant consists of an oral historical past interview with Alexander and makes it simpler for the general public to entry and discover his work.  

“Since he has been here for over 50 years, he has documented the life, the breath, and the richness of Black Atlanta,” Oates stated.  

Alexander hopes younger folks will take pleasure within the work he is accomplished.

You can study extra about Emory’s assortment of Alexander’s images here

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