EAN: 9781433100109

BOOKER T WASHINGTON AND THE ART OF SELF-REPRESE...

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 Victorian 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.

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