Frederick Douglas: On Photography

On Thursday I got the opportunity to attend Laura Wexler's lecture "Frederick Douglas: On Photography" and it really opened my eyes into the philosophical aspect of Douglas' purpose. This lecture mainly looked at how Frederick Douglas wanted to completely erase the slavery mentality from the face of America through photographs. According to the lecture, Douglas believed the accurate and actual depictions of negroes using pictures gave black people the opportunity to decide how they want to be shown. Douglas was pushing forth a new agenda, he was wading in uncharted waters for many and thus was not fully accepted in his ways. He still went on ahead to be the most photographed man of his era. One thing that amused me was how he maintained the same visual expression in each and every one of his photos. According to him, smiling fit the agenda of the white slave master, promoting the narrative of the minstrel negro smiling all the time. Douglas wanted a stern look on his face all the time so people will take him seriously. He manipulated his image and expression in order to completely exclude a stereotype and control his perception of himself. I personally think he was a sort of photographic artistic genius of his time.