SEEING BLACK
Black Photography in New Orleans 1840 & Beyond
SEEING BLACK is a multimedia, research-based project chronicling and celebrating the history, influence, performative aesthetic, and futurity of Black photography in New Orleans. From photography's pre-Civil War beginnings to its 21st-century practices, SEEING BLACK engages the intellectual inquiry, cultural histories, political positioning, and innovative versatility of historical and contemporary Black photography.
Organized around a publication, a series of exhibitions spanning multiple sites, a digital platform, an index, and public programming, SEEING BLACK challenges traditional exhibition didactics, conventional object presentations, and historical assumptions of blackness and representation. The project robustly engages a broad body of work from more than eighty historical and contemporary photographers and the themes and vernacular embodied in their images.
Gestures of Refusal
Black Photography and Visual Culture
Featuring the work of over one hundred contemporary Black photographers and artists, Gestures of Refusal: Black Photography and Visual Culture, curated by Shana M. griffin, is a grounding-breaking exhibition of SEEING BLACK, presented in partnership with the Contemporary Arts Center, exploring the production of Black visual culture and how Black photographers regularly use the lens of their cameras and creative practices to challenge everyday forms of violence, subjectivity, and erasure.
From the invisible to the obvious, the mundane to the spectacular, the overlooked to the known, the erased, and to the remembered—the photography in the exhibition explores a range of narrative styles, compositions, techniques, and approaches for engaging the aesthetics of Black visuality.
Contemporary Arts Center
Opening Reception
Saturday, January 6, 2024
6 PM - 10 PM
On View
January 6 - April 29, September 15, 2024
Wednesdays - Mondays
10 AM - 5 PM
Tuesdays by Appointment
900 Camp Street | New Orleans, LA 70130
Photographer: Trenity Thomas
Closing Social
Sunday, September 15, 2024
4 PM - 7 PM
IN THE SPIRIT OF BLACK
IN THE SPIRIT OF BLACK brings together an intergenerational group of photographers whose work engages the photographic grammars, textures, multiplicities, and visual sounds of Black life in and outside New Orleans.
From well-known to emerging photographers, IN THE SPIRIT OF BLACK features a broad body of work from seventy-five photographers showcasing over 120 images reflecting a versatility of styles and approaches documenting elements of Black life, self-expression, cultural traditions, spirituality, and remembrance through the visual frame of the camera.
Ashé Cultural Art Center
Opening Reception
1712 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard and 1731 Baronne St, New Orleans, LA 70131
6 PM - 9 PM
Thursday, March 30, 2023
On View
Friday, March 31 - June 3, 2023
10 AM - 5:30 PM
Tuesdays - Saturdays
Photographer: Eric Waters.
First Frame
First Frame, the preludial exhibition for SEEING BLACK: Black Photography in New Orleans 1840 & Beyond, is an immersive installation centering the photography of Florestine Perrault Collins, the first documented Black woman photographer in New Orleans, and work by early Black photographers documenting Black life, self-expression, political struggles, and social achievement through the camera.
Featuring a reimagined Florestine Perrault Collins Parlor Room, an early twentieth-century Black portrait studio, 1920s camera equipment, and photography artifacts, First Frame opens at the New Orleans African American Museum on October 6, 2022, at 7 pm, and will be on view from until June 4, 2023.
New Orleans African American Museum
1417 Governor Nicholls Street | New Orleans, LA 70116
Opening Reception
On View
October 6, 2022
October 7, 2022 - June 4, 2023
7 PM - 9 PM
11 AM - 4 PM
Thursdays - Sundays
Self-portrait, Florestine Perrault Collins. Courtesy Dr. Arthé A. Anthony. 
Photographer: Eric Waters.
info@seeingblack.org
SEEING BLACK | PO BOX 51325 | New Orleans, LA 70151
