I just got this book from the library. I've only thumbed through it so far. I am becoming more invested in learning about the history and present contributions of African Americans in photography.
In 1911 Addison Scurlock opened a photography studio in Washington, D.C., and went on to chronicle the aspirations and ambitions of the black community into the 1990s. Later joined by his sons, Robert and George, themselves all part of the rising middle class of segregated Washington, Scurlock recorded the finer moments of black life—portraits of wealth and comfort, celebrations of marriages and new homes, political and social achievements. As the city changed and grew, with the black population swelling, the Scurlocks chronicled the growth and later decline of black businesses, the change from a middle class forced to develop its own institutions within a segregated society to an influx of poor migrants from the South with less connection to those institutions, and the social and political tumult wrought by the civil rights movement. Photographs include the famous (Marian Anderson, Duke Ellington, Ralph Bunche, W. E. B. DuBois, and Muhammad Ali) as well as the influential but perhaps less well known (business owners, churchgoers, civic leaders, members of high society). With more than 100 images, this book is a proud celebration of a vibrant community from the early to the late twentieth century. --Vanessa Bush
Biography:
Born in Fayetteville, N.C., he graduated from high school there, and in 1900, moved with his family to Washington, D.C. Young Scurlock began his career as a photographer as an apprentice to Moses P. Rice, who had studios on Pennsylvania Avenue. By 1904, he learned the basics of photographic portraiture and the entire range of laboratory work. That same year, he started his own business at his parents’ home on Florida Avenue.
He photographed students at Howard University, M Street, Armstrong high schools, Black universities, and high schools throughout the South. In 1907, he won a gold medal for photography at the Jamestown Exposition. He opened the Scurlock Studio in the African-American community’s theater district in 1911, and concentrated on portraiture and general photography. His clients included brides, successful people, politicians and presidents, convention guests, and socialites. A 1976 Washington Post article by Jacqueline Trescott read, "For years one of the marks of arriving socially in black Washington was to have your portrait hanging in Scurlock’s window."
In addition to studio portraits, he mastered the use of the panoramic camera and shot conventions, banquets, and graduations. By the 1920s, he had earned a national reputation. He was the official photographer of Howard University until his death in 1964, and he recorded all aspects of university life.
Scurlock also produced a series of portraits of African-American leaders that historian Carter G. Woodson distributed to African-American schools nationwide. One of his most significant photographs was that of Marion Anderson singing in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. A famous story told about him is that while shooting President Coolidge with the Dunbar Cadet Corp on the White House Lawn, he walked up to the president and moved him to another position for the sake of a better picture, much to the dismay of the Secret Service.
Scurlock and his wife, Mamie Estelle, lived just a few blocks from the studio with their four sons — Addison, Robert, George, and Walter. Mamie served as the studio’s business manager. From 1948 until 1952, Robert and George managed the Capital School of Photography. Among their students were future Washington Post photographers and a young Jacqueline Bouvier who became the wife of John Kennedy.
As founder of the Scurlock Photographic Studio, he took portraits of such notables as educators Booker T. Washington and Mary McLeod Bethune, composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, engineer Archie Alexander, political leader W.E.B. DuBois, former first lady Mamie Eisenhower, singer Billy Eckstine, physician Charles R. Drew, opera singer Madame Lillian Evanti, and poet Sterling Brown while documenting key moments in Washington, D.C. history. In 1964, Robert bought the Scurlock studio from his father and purchased a studio on Connecticut Avenue.
The Connecticut Avenue studio closed in the early 1970s and the 9th Street studio was demolished in 1983 for the Metro system. Addison Scurlock died on December 16, 1964 at the age of 81.
Addison Scurlock
Exhibition
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Scenes from the Past
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