UVA photography exhibit shatters stereotypes of Black Virginians during Jim Crow
“This exhibition is all about how Black folks not only survived, but how they, in some ways, morally and psychologically prospered during that time,” said UVA professor John Edwin Mason.
A collection of 10,000 stereotype-defying images documenting Black life in Central Virginia during the Jim Crow era will be showcased at the University of Virginia through September 2023.
“Visions of Progress: Portraits of Dignity, Style and Racial Uplift,” the exhibit featuring photographs by Charlottesville photographer Rufus Holsinger, includes over 600 self-portraits commissioned by Black Virginians during the turn of the 20th century, according to the Culpepper Star-Exponent.
The images of Black families and individuals posing proudly while outfitted in formal attire and 20th century modern styles reflect a symbol of resilience against the backdrop of rampant racial subjugation imposed upon African Americans during Jim Crow, the outlet reported.
“This exhibition is all about how Black folks not only survived, but how they, in some ways, morally and psychologically prospered during that time,” John Edwin Mason, a UVA professor of African history and the history of photography, as well as the director of the Holsinger Portrait Project, told the outlet.
Originally taken in the university studio, formerly located at 719 W Main Street in Charlottesville, the Holsinger Studio Collection will be temporarily housed approximately one mile west in the university’s Albert and Shirley Small Collections Library, per the Culpepper Star-Exponent.
The limited occupations available to Black Americans in the early 1900s often consisted of manual labor for men and domestic service work for women, and many images taken during the time feature Black workers in uniforms, often stained or dirty, the outlet reported.
The Holsinger Collection, however, contains visuals of “style and panache,” which, according to Mason, differs from the stereotypical images many people associate with Black people over a century ago.
“They weren’t defined by their oppression. They weren’t defined by their jobs as housemaids or janitors. They were defined by their personal dignity and their conviction that they were equal to anybody else and deserve the full rights to citizenship,” he told the Culpepper Star-Exponent.
Following the exhibition’s closing in fall 2023, 500 select photographs from the collection will be toured to primary and secondary schools around Virginia, according to the outlet.
To learn more about the exhibit and view digital images from the Holsinger Studio Collection, click here.
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