hanging with mrbennette: Louis Draper

Thursday, January 23, 2014

LOUIS DRAPER 1935 - 2002 : RETROSPECTIVE part 2

Go + See

Louis Draper

January 10 - February 20 2014
Candela Books + Gallery

214 West Broad Street

Richmond VA 23220

In 1958, Draper moved from his hometown, Richmond, Virginia to Harlem to study photography. In those early years he photographed all over the streets of New York with a compassionate and discerning eye for the social conditions of the time, as well as quietly observing the nuances of mid-century city life.

Boy playing ball

Kool, man with hat

Graffiti silhouette

Fannie Lou Hamer, Mississippi, 1971

Garment worker

Boy with paint splatter

Draper was a founding member of the seminal black photographers’ collective originally named the Kamoinge Workshop, formed in 1963, which included Roy DeCarava as its first director. Other notable members of Kamoinge over the years: Ray Francis, Herb Randall, Al Fennar, Jimmie Mannas, Shawn Walker, Tony Barboza and Beuford Smith. Kamoinge and its photographers were featured in an important 1966 Camera Magazine issue, focused on Harlem and the increasing urgency of race relations in the United States at that time.

For further information please visit:

http://thelouisdraperproject.wordpress.com/

https://candelabooks.com/gallery/

This exhibition is taking part in Race, Place and Identity, a collaboration of Richmond organizations highlighting Civil Rights and Social Justice.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

LOUIS DRAPER 1935 - 2002 : RETROSPECTIVE

Go + See
Louis Draper
January 10 - February 20 2014
Candela Books + Gallery
214 West Broad Street

Richmond, VA 23220

" Somebody, somebody Lord !

Somebody, somebody Can anybody find me somebody to love? " Queen

This statement might seem strange to people of European decent but until very recently seeing images of non europeans in the American main stream was difficult at best and at the worst shameful.

We have to thank the thousands of minority photographers who had faith in their people,even if they could not move to center stage in the photographic world.

When I was growing up as a kid, I was starving to see people like me in magazines and books, television and movies. My aunt recently reminded me that my grandmother had the only television for blocks in the rural area I grew up in. I love looking at tv, I love magazines, but people who look like me never look out of that world to be a part of mine.

This is the reason I am quoting Queen's Somebody to Love, I wanted to see someone in that light like me but I digress. I am happy that Gordon Settinius of Candela Books + Gallery in Richmond Virginia will host the first retrospective exhibition of the mid-century African-American photographer, Louis Draper (1935-2002). Retrospective will showcase over 40 photographs spanning Draper’s career, from the late 1950s to 1990s. Primarily a street photographer, Draper’s archive has revealed an incredible range of artistic skill, including portraiture and abstraction, which will all be highlighted in the exhibition.