Thousands of iconic images of African American authors, athletes, artists and activists will soon be easier to access and explore, thanks to a three-year grant from the Getty Foundation for Black Visual Arts Archives.
The Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University recently received the $280,000 grant to process the Jim Alexander photograph collection. One aspect of the work made possible through the grant will be enhancing the finding aid with a more detailed description, making it easier for researchers and course instructors to find what they need.
A documentary photographer, Alexander is known for his compelling images of Black musicians, politicians, protesters and everyday people. He started taking photos in 1952 at age 17 when he was in the U.S. Navy. He graduated from the New York Institute of Photography in 1968 with a degree in commercial photography, but instead followed his passion and spent his life documenting the lives of African Americans and their experiences. His work has been featured in more than 60 exhibits, including some at Emory’s Woodruff Library, and he has taught photography at Yale University and other colleges.
Alexander, who will turn 90 in August, continues to take photographs. His historical images were exhibited in four Atlanta locations in June and July, including The Sun ATL Gallery (on display through Aug. 16) and the Fulton County Central Library.
N'Kosi Oates, curator of African American collections at Rose Library, is the lead principal investigator (PI) on the grant project. Carrie Hintz, associate director of Rose Library, is co-PI.
“The Rose Library has a very robust collecting area regarding African Americans in the arts, ranging from theater and playwrights to literature and writers to photography and artists,” says Oates. “Jim Alexander’s collection ranks among the top for scope and scale. The Getty Foundation’s support for processing Alexander’s collection is a testament to just how remarkable and valuable his archive truly is to visual culture, the Atlanta community and American history.”
Alexander’s photography at Emory
The Alexander collection first came to the Rose Library in 2014, with subsequent additions made in 2016, 2018 and 2022.
The collection consists of prints, negatives, slides and contact sheets — in all, thousands of photographs taken by Alexander from about 1960-2022.
Many of the photos were taken at marches, rallies and protests in Atlanta and throughout the Southeast, including civil rights and anti-apartheid marches, KKK rallies, concerts and music festivals, and more. Images of prominent African American politicians, athletes, activists, authors, musicians and artists — including Romare Bearden, Ralph Abernathy, Julian Bond, John Lewis, Andrew Young, Angela Davis, James Baldwin, Duke Ellington and others — are among the collection materials.
“Jim Alexander is one of the best-known historical civil rights era photographers of our time,” says Valeda F. Dent, vice provost of Emory Libraries, Carlos Museum and the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship. “It is an honor for the Rose Library to be the steward of Jim’s photography collection and to be graced with the opportunity to teach and support research using these collections. Jim is also a major supporter of the Emory Libraries and the Michael C. Carlos Museum, and we so value his presence and partnership. We are over the moon about this new opportunity!”
The Alexander photography collection offers a rich visual story of Atlanta’s 20th-century arts and culture history, especially during the Black arts movement of the 1960s and 1970s. But much of it remains unprocessed, including images of key events like the National Black Arts Festival and Atlanta Jazz Festival, and settings like the Neighborhood Arts Center (a community arts center significant in Atlanta’s Black arts movement).
Work funded by the grant intends to address this gap.
The grant project will include two main components. First, a visiting archivist will process the collection to improve discoverability and accessibility. Second, an oral history will be created with Alexander. Oates has been training with the Emory Oral History Project team on how to prepare for and conduct the interviews. Among other topics, he hopes to ask Alexander about his artistic evolution and discuss the context of selected images.
Clinton Fluker, senior director of culture, community and partner engagement for Emory Libraries and the Michael C. Carlos Museum, helped bring in parts of the collection over the years as a graduate student assistant and then as curator of African American collections of the Rose Library.
“The Jim Alexander photograph collection is such a gift to Emory University and the world,” says Fluker. “Alexander’s photographs capture moments in history that span decades and tell us stories about the African American experience in this country that only a master can produce. Just as he has mentored photographers and artists all over the world, we’ll now be able to learn from his collection of photographs for years to come as it serves as an invaluable resource to researchers in the Stuart A. Rose Library.”
Learn more about the Jim Alexander photograph collection through the Rose Library finding aid for the collection or email the Rose Library staff.