Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People

Do you remember when you first looked closely at a picture of yourself? If you're African American, in particular, did you like what you saw, or was the image staring back at you one that was darkened, and clouded, by what the world had already taught you, or those around you, about blackness?

In award winning filmmaker, Thomas Allen Harris' beautifully rendered documentary, Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, Harris uses his own early questions about beauty and blackness to set the tone for this celebration of the black image and black image makers, even as it reflects on the history, and power, of the denigrated black image and the intentional creation of black caricatures. From the moment the first Africans were brought to American shores, there has been a systematic effort devised to demonize black people. How ironic that centuries later, the same perceptions of blackness as unlawful, lazy, childish, ignorant, hyper-sexual, worthless and ugly still exist in what many would like to think of as a "post-racial" America. Harris takes us on a journey in which we reflect on this legacy of the African American image, and the continued struggle to fashion our own images in a manner that reflects the totality, and reality, of who we are. Harris also encourages us that he/she who controls the image(s) shapes and changes perceptions. The unforgettably beautiful images, then, taken by African American photographers who simply desire to represent truth, and have picked up cameras in order to assert the humanity of their African American subjects, inspire the viewer to do the same. And Harris' Digital Diaspora Family Reunion invites African Americans to "reconsider and revalue" their family photo albums, as the incredible representations of black life, love and beauty that they are.