Picturing Black New Orleans: A Creole Photographer's View of the Early Twentieth Century

by Arthé A. Anthony

Overview

This book illuminates the fascinating story and visual legacy of Florestine Perrault Collins, who documented African American life in New Orleans between 1920 and 1949.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813080192
Publisher:	University Press of Florida
Publication date:	03/07/2023
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Arthé A. Anthony is professor emerita of American studies at Occidental College.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Collins was a feisty, ambitious Creole woman in twentieth-century New Orleans who overcame the barriers society and the law put in her way. She meant to be successful on her own terms and she was."—Patricia Brady, author of Martha Washington: An American Life

"A welcome addition to the study of vernacular photography. Anthony reveals how this remarkable woman marked her place in a 'man's world.' Picturing Black New Orleans will have an impact on the history of photography and the city of New Orleans, particularly the Tremé neighborhood. This book is a revelation."—Deborah Willis, author of Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present

“Anthony has gracefully combined the exploration of her family history with the analysis of the larger cultural pasts of Creole identity and Black photography. Picturing Black New Orleans offers insight into the life of a photographer whose independent spirit and artistic talent helped shape the identity of a people.”—Bridget R. Cooks, author of Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum

Editorial Reviews

Fascinating.”—LA Weekly

 

“[An] alluring book.”—New Orleans Magazine

 

“Anthony delivers a warm and detailed portrait of Collins and some facets of New Orleans’ rich and richly complicated culture in the early 20th century.”—Gambit

 

“Readers will appreciate amusing and emotional anecdotes while also gaining a strong sense of what New Orleans was like in those 20th-century decades for Creoles and others of African heritage.”—Library Journal

From the Publisher

Here is a perspective on New Orleans from 1920 to 1049, as recorded by the cameras of Florestine Perrault Collins (1895–1988), a Creole woman who broke barriers by becoming a professional photographer in a time when neither women nor minorities were a strong presence on that side of the camera. Through her photographs and the words of her great-niece, author Anthony (American studies, Occidental Coll.), readers will appreciate amusing and emotional anecdotes while also gaining a strong sense of what New Orleans was like in those 20th-century decades for Creoles and others of African heritage. The photographs are beautiful and well reproduced, providing a seeming glimpse into the souls of Collins’s subjects and freezing them in the moment. Many of Collins’s clients would save up to get their picture taken, often for an important milestone in their lives such as school graduation, first communion, and weddings. Anthony’s text describes the background of Creole culture in New Orleans and offers known specifics about those whose portraits are included.

Verdict Recommended for all collections on Creole or New Orleans history, African American studies, or American regional portrait photography.—Sonnet Ireland, Univ. of New Orleans Lib.(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Library Journal