At the intersection of Wylie and Herron Avenues, a poster for vitamin-infused lemon-lime soda promises health to its customers; beyond the sign, pedestrians are frozen in various stages of crossing the street. The photograph then angles up at late-1940s Herron Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, showcasing several variety and grocery shops and heavily lettered signs above the doorways, suggesting that the community itself is in a constant state of motion.
This scene is just one of the 31 captured in “Rhapsody in Black and White,” an exhibit by photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris being shown in the Zilkha Gallery until Sept. 23. The oldest photograph in the collection is of a man who is believed to be Harris himself, sitting in a heavy leather chair in a well adorned but dimly lit room. Though sitting still, he holds his eyes as if just shifting between feeling furious and laughing explosively. A foot swings sharply in one direction, a white blur from the ankle down.
“Rhapsody” focuses entirely on African-American life in Harris’ own neighborhood and home. In one photograph, a waitress, dressed in a full white-and-black uniform, tightens the muscles of her upper lip, anticipating a full smile, while another woman, presumably a restaurant patron, fixes Harris with a solid stare. The waitress appears warm in a thick glow that holds her alone, an isolation technique that Harris favors for many of his shots. She holds a pad of restaurant checks in her left hand and looks shy, but stares straight at the camera and appears absolutely full of life.
The exhibit, on loan from the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, comes to Wesleyan to be showcased simultaneously with the debut of Ronald K. Brown’s dance performance “One Shot,” for which this collection of pictures served as inspiration. The performance is named after Harris, who bore the nickname “One Shot” due to his opposition to retaking photographs. This resulted in the myriad quirky and bizarrely contorted facial expressions of his subjects and an energy that Brown has worked to emulate in his choreography.
Many of Harris’ subjects, which range from his wife and child to mourners at a cemetery, profile a community amidst various stages of cohesion. In almost all of his photographs, Harris’ subjects are moving, setting their eyes and jaw lines as if they were conversing with Harris and unaware of the camera.
The final photograph in “Rhapsody” portrays a school-aged boy with thin arms and enormous boxing gloves who sits next to a bottle of champagne in a bucket. Two other boys, though far less apparent, look as if they have had time to prepare for the photograph. But the “little boy boxer,” as the photograph is identified, fixes his eyes and approximates a smile on something behind the camera. His short legs swing above the ground beyond the edge of the fighting ring where he sits, a single tear falling down from his right eye.
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