Wanderings in History

I love historical photographs. I wrote a paper about WEB DuBois' photography portion of his American Negro exhibit from the Paris Exposition of 1900. With these photographs, DuBois wanted to show the world a different side of black life at the turn of the twentieth century, one that was totally unknown to many American and European whites.

The use of photographs depicting black middle-class society was one way DuBois fought against negative images and perceptions of African Americans at that time. These photographs show blacks who are business owners, students, and musicians. But what I'm most drawn to are the portraits. The portraits show the diversity of our physical features and what is most striking to me is that these folks look like my friends, family, or other modern day people I pass on the street.

Before writing this paper, I had never heard of the exhibit or seen these photographs. They are a part of such an important part of this countries history.

If you're interested in seeing more of these photographs, check out the Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs online collection at www.loc.gov. I also love the book A Small Nation of People: Portraits of Progress by David Levering Lewis and Deborah Willis, which details the history behind the American Negro exhibit and features a number of the photographs.

Photographs from the Library of Congress website.

Wanderings on Photo Booth


I recently got a MacBook Pro. The Mac has a cool application called Photo Booth which allows me to take pictures with the camera installed just above the computer screen. The best feature about this application are the effects tools that come with it. I can distort images and change colors. It gives me a chance to be really creative with my photos especially since I haven't yet learned how to manipulate film in the darkroom. Here are some images that I've taken with Photo Booth:

A Warhol painting: My twist-out

The X-Ray effect: A little frustrated


The Thermal effect: Hiding

Wanderings in the Verizon Center

Last week night A and I went to see the Wizards play the Indiana Pacers at the Verizon Center. I haven't been to a pro basketball game in ages. I was so excited to get out of the house and away from schoolwork. Although I had a paper due on Thursday, I needed to relax and enjoy an evening out.

We arrived at the arena pretty early, so I took advantage of the time to take some behind the scenes pictures.

The teams warming up

Sportscaster preparing for shoot

While I'm not an avid sports fan I do enjoy watching a good game of basketball or football, thanks to growing up with older brothers who are die-hard sports fans. And this was an exciting game although it was a blowout, the Wizards spanked the Pacers 117 to 91. Ouch!

The Verizon Center is a trip into sensory overload: bright lights, pumping music, loud cheers and boos, smelly chili cheesedogs and nachos. We were also treated to live entertainment during timeouts and halftime: the Wizards cheerleaders, the Wizard's dance team, a magician, and the shenanigans of the Wizard's mascot G-Whiz who jumped up in the stands to egg on fans.

G-Whiz hanging out in the stands

I had a headache by the time we left, but it was worth the evening out.

I also got this shot of Gilbert Arenas on the jumbotron. He's a major fan favorite, but also one of my sister's favorite players, so this is for her.

Wanderings in Le Droit Park

On Sunday, my brother L visited me and A. We had a late breakfast at the Florida Avenue Grill. It's an old black-owned diner in NW. It just celebrated 60 years in business sometime this past year. I love it! So cramped, dingy, and busy. The diner's best feature (along with the great wait staff) is that the walls are adorned with framed head shots of its famous clientèle, mostly actors, politicians and musicians. There are so many photos! The grouping of photos is so random! The ones I can remember now are: Tichina Arnold, Ron Dellums, Ralph Carter, Denzel Washington, Armstrong Williams, Ron Brown, Adrian Fenty, John Ashcroft and Strom Thurmond!

After breakfast we decided to walk through the Le Droit Park neighborhood. This area used to be an enclave of the black elite of Washington, DC. The houses are spectacular! Old Victorian mansions and colorful row houses line the streets. Some have been renovated, others are still awaiting some TLC. The place has so much history.

There was one rundown house that we just couldn't figure out. The house looked as if someone had cut it in half with a knife. One side had a door, windows, and a porch, the other side was a brick wall. It was quite spooky--some of the windows were boarded up and the outside staircase was missing.

As we were staring at the half-house, a young man walked up to us and asked what we were staring at. I told him that we were trying to figure out the story behind the house. I added that I liked the house even though it was a little creepy. Then he said, "What kind of person likes a creepy old house?" Well I answered saying, "Even creepy things having some sort of value." His only response was to give me a puzzled look. He continued to look at the house with us, marveling a bit at the bricked up side of the house before he got bored and left.

I'm attaching some of the photos that I took on our walk. Not all turned out as I'd have hoped but it's been awhile since I've taken pictures. I think that my eye is a little rusty.