Family Pictures Syracuse Film Screening- Through a Lens Darkly

Kick-off the launch of Family Pictures Syracuse by attending a screening of (2014)! We'll be joined by filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris who will conduct a Q&A following the screening.

This event is free and open to the public! RSVP to reserve your spot.

Contact us for more information!

• Call us: (315) 741-5706
• Email us: [email protected]

Hosmer Auditorium

Everson Museum

401 Harrison ST

Syracuse, NY 13202

About the film:

"The first documentary to explore the role of photography in shaping the identity, aspirations, and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present, Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People probes the recesses of American history through images that have been suppressed, forgotten, and lost.

Bringing to light the hidden and unknown photos shot by both professional and vernacular African American photographers, the film opens a window into the lives of black families, whose experiences and perspectives are often missing from the traditional historical canon. African Americans historically embraced the medium as a way to subvert popular stereotypes as far back as the Civil War era, with Frederick Douglass photographed in a suit and black soldiers posing proudly in their uniforms. These images show a much more complex and nuanced view of American culture and its founding ideals.

Inspired by the book Reflections in Black by photo historian Deborah Willis, the film features the works of esteemed photographic artists Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, Anthony Barboza, Hank Willis Thomas, Coco Fusco, Clarissa Sligh, James Van Der Zee, Gordon Parks, and many others."

About the Family Pictures Syracuse project:

Family Pictures Syracuse is a collaboration between Syracuse's Turning the Lens Collective and The Family Pictures Institute for Inclusive Storytelling to assemble an archive for social justice in the city of Syracuse. The Turning the Lens Collective recognizes that the photographs we take, display in our homes, or keep in family albums are sites for public memory—windows into stories that too often go unseen and underwritten. With our Family Pictures Syracuse project, we seek to inspire our city to narrate the stories our images hold to ensure that our histories are not lost or overlooked. We believe that working toward a living community photo archive will benefit our city’s residents as its very existence will assert that everyone, especially our most vulnerable members, have always and will continue to have a stake in Syracuse’s shared local history, our present, and our future.

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Host or Publisher Family Pictures Syracuse