Booker T Washington and the Art of Self-Representation - Michael Bieze Kartoniert (TB)

Booker T. Washington embraced photography as the artistic medium to represent himself and Tuskegee Institute because it was economical technical utilitarian and aesthetic: an apt form for a man who preached a gospel of thrift industry self-sufficiency and beauty. Advancements in photography at the end of the nineteenth century allowed Washington to be simultaneously better known and more elusive - an international celebrity with a multitude of identities. Washington produced and directed photographic images by considering region race and class. Initially he crafted an image of Victori an grace as a fund-raising strategy which appealed to elite white America's belief in gradual reform. As Washington entered the last decade of his life he gradually shifted his efforts toward speaking directly to black audiences with the support of black photographers. He shed the passive role he presented to the white world and challenged racist popular culture by visually demonstrating social and cultural equality. Washington should be credited with not only launching the careers of several black photographers but also with establishing the early aesthetic of the «New Negro». From 1895-1915 Washington was the central figure in African American culture supporting black artists telling black stories in the contemporary Victorian aesthetic and showing how blacks could equal whites artistically and culturally.