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# Black: theatres of African American memory
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/article-2091jsp/
- Published: 2004-09-14T23:09:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-17T11:52:43.000Z
- Author: Deborah Willis
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 19:17, #ImagesUploaded

Deborah Willis:

*“In constructing a black–culture photo story through collective memory...I thought about photographers’ works that focus on black life, photographs that celebrate and tell a story about everyday life. The photographs explored, documented and reinforced common cultures within African American communities whether through style of dress or through celebrations. Themes explored…include everyday life – family life, spirituality, celebrations, portraiture, beauty, memory, and the arts.”*

“Photographing friends, people and places, family members, and their possessions is a transformative act that one hopes instills a sense of joy and dignity in the subject, photographer, and viewer. Since the beginning of photography, individual portraits, family photographs, and community events have embodied that special connection, and they can be viewed as evidence of special moments and used to illustrate a story.”

“Looking at photographs produced in the 1930s next to photographs made in 2003, I began to see linkages on the Saturday night/Sunday morning theme — Saturday mornings of leisure time, shopping, going to the beauty salons and barber shops; Saturday nights of dancing, partying, playing cards; and familiar Sunday morning baptismal services, ministers at the pulpit, fancy hats, and proud families.”

![Baptism.jpg](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/2026/04/Baptism_qFTvSpz-1776425900957.jpg)

Baptism.jpg

Addison Scurlock, Baptism, National Museum of American Histroy, Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution

![Pilot.jpg](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/2026/04/Pilot_tDCKSiZ-1776425901021.jpg)

Pilot.jpg

Scurlock Studio, Benjamin O. Davis, Tuskegee Airman, National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution

![church_couple.jpg](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/2026/04/church_couple_GprBmqJ-1776425901021.jpg)

church\_couple.jpg

Eli Reed, Sunday Morning, Harlem, 1985

![sax.jpg](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/2026/04/sax_9BzdN5Z-1776425901058.jpg)

sax.jpg

Rahsaan Roland Kirk, ca. 1970s, Ellis Haizlip Collection, Archive Center, Anacostia Museum (CAAHC), Smithsonian Institution

![tango.jpg](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/2026/04/tango_KuGo5Xj-1776425901118.jpg)

tango.jpg

C. Daniel Dawson, Tango, Buenos Aries, 1998

![wedding.jpg](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/2026/04/wedding_BDbpJpi-1776425901123.jpg)

wedding.jpg

Bruce Davidson, Brides maids at a wedding in Harlem, NYC, 1962, Magnum Photos 23053

These photographs come from Deborah Willis’s [book](http://www.hylaspublishing.com/titles/black.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) *BLACK: A Celebration of a Culture*, a collection of African-American photography spanning the 20th-century.