African American Histories of Fugtivity-->Untitled #13 (Trees and Reflections) (2017)

When was the Fugitive Slave Act?

1850

What did the Fugitive Slave Act require?

People throughout the country to turn fugitives over to law enforcement officials and criminalized aiding runaways

Who coined the term self emancipation?

1853

What were abolitionists?

Those who sough the outlawing of slavery

Anti-slavery resistance led to the establishment of what?

The Underground Railroad

What was the Underground Railroad?

A network that assisted enslaved people in their escape to relatively safe areas, or Canada

To escape detection, what did the underground railroad need to do?

Remain as a constantly shifting network of trusted contacts, safe houses, and secure routes

How was information about the shifting network of the underground railroad trasmitted?

Orally

Escaping to freedom involved what?

Complex wayfinding relying on visual cues of space and place

When was the poster supporting Anthony Burns made?

1855

When was Anthony Burns arrested?

1854

Who supported Burns in his trial?

Abolitionists

What was the result of Burns case?

He lost and was returned to Virginia

When was A Ride for Liberty made?

1862

Who made A Ride for Liberty?

Eastman Johnson

What did successful fugitives have to be skilled in?

Reading and using the landscape through which they traveled

What well known images from the 19th century show self-emancipated people?

Theodor Kaufmanns On to Liberty, and Eastman Johnsons A Ride for Liberty

When was Theodor Kaufmanns On to Liberty made?

1867

Kaufmanns On to Liberty and Johnsons A Ride for Liberty show what?

Escapees scanning behind them for signs of pursuit

What were important guideposts for self-emancipated people?

Stars

What was the constellation Big Dipper or Ursa Major known by African Americas as?

The drinking gourd

How did the Big Dipper help self-emancipated people?

Two stars in the constellation point toward the North Star

Which song provided travelers with a specific road map to freedom?

Follow the Drinking Gourd

For many what was the final obstacle to cross to get into free states?

The Ohio River

What was the ethnicity of Robert S. Duncanson?

Mixed Black and European American

For Robert S. Duncanson what did bodies of water serve as methaphors for?

The safe traversal of a dangerous landscape

In which work did Duncanson map visual geographies of slavery and freedom?

Views of his home city, Cincinnati, from across the Ohio River

Which photographer picks up the journey on the other side of the river?

Dawoud Bey

What series did Dawoud Bey create?

Night Coming Tenderly, Black

What type of photo was used for Night Coming Tenderly Black?

Black and White

What did Bey record in Night Coming Tenderly, Black?

Several sites on the final legs of the Underground Railroad

After crossing into Ohio where would fugitives have to make their way to?

Cleaveland

What was Cleaveland?

A port on Lake Erie

Why would fugitives make their way to Cleaveland?

To catch a boat to the ultimate safety of Canada

What provided protection in Central Ohio in the nineteenth century?

Its thick forests

Beys photographs select sites along how much of the route?

The last 50 miles

Through the last 50 miles what did self-emancipated people have to do?

Marshal all their resources and skills without the aid of written maps

How can the lighting of Bey’s photographs be described?

Darkly lit

Beys photographs speak of a voyage filled with what?

Peril

What do Beys photographs celebrate?

The resilience of those who were able to make it to the end journey

Where was Dawoud Bey born?

Queens New York

When was Dawoud Bey born?

1953

What was Dawoud Bey’s first major photographic project?

Harlem USA

When was Harlem USA made?

1979

Where did Dawoud Bey graduate from?

Yale University School of Art

When did Dawoud graduate?

1993

What did Dawoud graduate with?

An MFA

In 2017 what award did Bey win?

A MacArthur Fellowship

What was Bey known for in his early career?

Portraits and photographs of urban Black life

What is street photography?

Informal unposed images taken in public places

What group dominated street photography in the 1970s?

White photographers

Who pioneered street photography?

Walker Evans

When did Walker Evans pioneer street photography?

1930s

Who are other important street photographers?

Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, and Garry Winogrand

What was a major exeption to the ethnicity of most other street photographers?

Roy DeCarava

What was Roy DeCarava known for?

His images beauty and spontaneity, and technical brilliance in developing high contrast prints with rich velvety black tones

When did DeCarava publish Sweet Flypaper of Life?

1955

Text from who was included in DeCaravas Sweet Flypaper of Life?

Poet Langston Hughes

Who were Bey’s major influences?

Roy DeCarava, and Langson Hughes

Where did the title Night Coming Tenderly, Black come from?

Langston Hughes poem Dream Variations

When did Hughes publish Dream Variations?

1926

What did Beys early street photography focus on?

Contemporary life

When did Beys work turn toward Black history?

Early 2010’s

What was Beys first work on Black History?

The Birmingham Project

When did Bey create The Birmingham Project?

2012

What did The Birmingham Project consist of?

Portraits that reflected on the 6 young lives lost in the bombing of a Baptist church in Birmingham Alabama

When did the bombing of the Baptist church in Birminham Alabama take place?

1963

Who comissioned Bey to investigate local histories of the Underground Railroad?

The Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art

When did the Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art comission Bey?

2017

The commission by the Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art led to the first photographs of what?

Night Coming Tenderly Black

Why is Night Coming Tenderly Black not a documentary?

Most of the sites chosen by Bey were not actual locations of the antislavery network

What did Bey create?

An imagined experience of the journey

Why is much general knowledge about the Undergound Railroad a blend of truth and fiction?

It was not well documented due to its clandestine nature

What does Art Historian Seven Nelson write about Beys images?

Its position at the crossroads of history and myth inspired Beys images

The dark and impenetrable nature of the photographs mimick what?

The uncertainty and dread that must have accompanies the nighttime journeys

In Untitled #13 (Trees and Reflections) what is the tree line cut off by?

The upper frame of the image

Where is the treeline reflected?

In the gently rippling water of a small pond

What does the darkness of the image force readers to do?

Peer hard to discern details

The photographs are printed using what methods?

Gelatin silver printing

How does gelatin silver printing work?

Silver halides suspended in gelatin to create a light sensitive surface for printing

When did the process of gelatin silver pringint develop?

Around 1890

What does gelatin silver print allow for?

Incredible control in creating a full tonal range from dark tur black to crisp white

What time of day was Untitled #13 (Trees and Reflections) taken?

Daytime

How does Untitled #13 achieve a hazy blackness?

Using gelatin silver print

The hazy blackness of Untitled #13 mimics what?

Photographs taken in low-light conditions

What is the images size?

4×5 ft

What does the size of Untitled #13 create?

An immersive and enigmatic viewing exprience

What does the low contrast of the image force the viewer to do?

Slow down to allow our eyes to adjust tot he darkness

What does the darkness act as?

An enveloping screen that provides the safety of concealment

What does Untitled #13 do?

Takes an ordinary American landscape and makes it feel strange and alien

Which other photograph stresses the unmonumental nature of sites where formerly enslaved people sought safety?

Untitled #1 Picket Fence and Farmhouse

Buildings used as way-stations included what?

Private homes, barns, sheds, or other humble outbuildings

What do we struggle to find in Untitled #13?

Anything that might help orient a traveler

Instead of showing human figures moving through the space what does the photograph ask of the viewer?

To imagine ourselves trying to navigate an obscured and uncertain route

The lack of clues about where to go next forces the viewer to imagine what?

The constant negotiation and assessment that fugitives experienced during their dangerous travels

What does Bey mean when he said the experience could be liberating as he imagined freedom seekers “looking out and opposed to being looked at.”

Their journeys necessitates careful attention, planning, and watchfulness, but freed them from oversight surveillance and objectification during enslavement