DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: The Black List:
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Description of Pictures: While photography was allowed in this special exhibit, I couldn't photograph most of the pieces because the reflective glass kept picking up everything around me instead of the piece itself.
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
BLKLST_120331_06.JPG: Susan Rice, 2007
A foreign policy intellectual and diplomat, Susan Rice (born 1964) was named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 2009 by President Obama. Previously she had served in the State Department during the Clinton administration. A graduate of Stanford, Rice was a Rhodes Scholar, and received her PhD from Oxford University in 1990 with a dissertation on postcolonial Zimbabwe.
Catching the eye of many influential figures in both government and the private sectors -- including Madeleine Albright, who has been something of a mentor -- Rice has become an important figure in Washington's foreign policy bureaucracy. She has described how she has fought against the tendency toward inertia and timidity that can result from overly cautious bureaucratic thinking and has drawn fire from critics who have found her too willing to buck the system.
BLKLST_120331_16.JPG: John Legend, 2009
John Legend (born 1978) is the stage name for the hugely successful recording artist and record producer John Stephens. He started singing as a youth in his church choir in Ohio and came to public attention when he sang as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania.
While he was still a student, his keyboard skills earned him the opportunity to record with Lauryn Hill. After graduation, he worked as a management consultant while simultaneously pursing a career as a nightclub performer.
He released two independent albums under his own name before an introduction to singer Kanye West in 2000 led to a recording contract and to his new name, which he took because he was told he sounded "old school."
In addition to winning six Grammy Awards, Legend has been involved in multiple collaborations with other performing artists and has made several appearances in films, usually playing himself.
BLKLST_120331_20.JPG: Samuel L. Jackson, 2008
One of the most acclaimed actors of his generation, Samuel L. Jackson (born 1948) began his career as a civil rights activist at Atlanta's Morehouse College in the mid-1960s. Jackson credits this work -- he was an usher at Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral -- with molding his character and convincing him of his strength of personality. He studied drama as an undergraduate, and his first work was on the stage.
But early on, Jackson's career was threatened by his drug addiction. Spike Lee cast him in several films while he struggled with his demons, and Jackson eventually kicked his cocaine habit, ironically just as he prepared to play a crack dealer in Lee's Jungle Fever (1991). Jackson has gone on to appear in more than one hundred films, ranging from such art-house favorites as Pulp Fiction (1994) to the outlandish yet entertaining Snakes on a Plane (2006). He has a recurring role in the Iron Man movies.
BLKLST_120331_29.JPG: What is a "black list"? The dictionary defines it as "a list of persons who are disapproved of or are to be punished or boycotted." But imagine if the black list were a roll call of distinction rather than of disenfranchisement? What if being on the black list was a point of pride rather than dread? What if the black list could shed its negative connotation to become a term of affirmation and empowerment like black pride, black power, or black is beautiful?
These are some of the questions that prompted photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (born 1952) to embark on a portrait project to create an entirely new kind of black list -- a visual "who's who" of African American men and women whose intelligence, talent, and determination have propelled them to prominence in disciplines as diverse as religion, performing arts, medicine, sports, art, literature, and politics.
Although these individuals have traveled different paths to success, all share a deep-seated activism that has carried them over daunting obstacles and continues to be a driving force in their lives. If the new black list represents a chronicle of African American achievement, the fifty men and women pictured here surely merit inclusion on its rolls.
Artist's Statement:
On February 24, 2005, Toni Morrison was having lunch in my East Village kitchen. The conversation turned to "divas," as Toni described the extraordinarily talented performers she had auditioned for her opera, Margaret Garner. "Timothy, we should do a portrait book on these women. "Call it . . . Black Divas."
It got me thinking about all the African Americans I knew and had photographed. I made a list: Toni of course, David Hammons, Bill T. Jones, and Colin Powell quickly came to mind.
Eventually, I envisioned a more broad-based project than opera stars and called my friend Elvis Mitchell for a lunch. By dessert we had 175 names on napkins, and the idea had morphed into a book, film, and portrait exhibition. "Let's call it 'The Black List,'" Elvis said. "We need to make it a good thing to be on 'The Black List.'"
I knew that the trick was to get a few great names onboard, and then others would follow. I called Toni Morrison and Thelma Golden. They both said yes, and we were on our way.
Thousands of people belong in The Black List Project. Sometimes our deadline and the subject's availability were impossible to coordinate. Yes, "so and so" belongs in here. We agree!
-- Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
BLKLST_120331_35.JPG: Chris Rock, 2007
Chris Rock (born 1965) parlayed a successful career in stand-up comedy into a multidimensional career as an actor, writer, producer, and director.
Rock's breakthrough came when he joined Saturday Night Live in 1990. He left the show in 1993, producing and starring in his own televised specials, including the Emmy-winning Bring the Pain (1996). He then branched into films, performing in both comedies and action/adventure movies. Rock carries on the tradition of observational and narrative humor, as opposed to telling jokes and one-liners.
While his observations on race in America can be biting, much of his work conveys an air of sentimentalism that is reflected in the TV series Everybody Hates Chris, his affectionate view of growing up in Brooklyn. In 2010 Rock made his Broadway acting debut in the Tony-nominated play The Mother with the Hat.
BLKLST_120331_40.JPG: Vernon Jordan, 2007
Vernon Jordan (born 1935) was part of the second wave of civil rights leaders who followed the generation of Martin Luther King Jr. From a modest background in Atlanta, Jordan went on to college at DePauw University and later earned his law degree from Howard University. Jordan became the director of the United Negro College Fund (1970) and served as president of the National Urban League from 1971 to 1981.
In 1980 he was shot by a white supremacist but survived the attack. Subsequently, Jordan took a less public role in politics and civil rights. Politically adroit and well-connected, Jordan has become a major power broker in Washington, one whose influence transcends the lines of race and party.
BLKLST_120331_46.JPG: Whoopi Goldberg, 2009
Whoopi Goldberg (born Caryn Elaine Johnson, 1955) is one of the most important and bankable stars in Hollywood. Beginning her career as a standup comedian, Goldberg announced herself as a serious actress by appearing as Celie in The Color Purple (1985), a role for which she received an Oscar nomination.
She won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1990 for her role in Ghost -- it was the first Academy Award presented to a black actress since Hattie McDaniel had won fifty years earlier. Goldberg has gone on to win Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and Golden Globe awards and become a one-woman entertainment conglomerate.
She is an outspoken host of The View and is no stranger to politically provocative remarks and humor. In 2001 she won the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Goldberg has made more than 150 films, and at one point in the 1990s she was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood. Her distinctive stage name comes from the gag joke "whoopee cushion," and her last name is a bow to the tradition of Jewish comedians.
BLKLST_120331_53.JPG: Keenen Ivory Wayans, 2007
A member of the talented and successful Wayans family -- five of his siblings have show-business careers -- Keenen Ivory Wayans (born 1958) is an actor, comedian, writer, and director. He dropped out of Tuskegee University as a senior to become a comedian.
He transitioned to acting, appearing in bit parts on television shows such as Cheers, but had his breakthrough when he became the leading actor and creator of the Fox series In Living Color (1990–94). This comedy was a showpiece not only for Wayans but for other up-and-coming comedians such as Jim Carrey and Jamie Foxx. Wayans directed and acted in Scary Movie (2000), a spoof of the horror/slasher genre; it is the highest-grossing film directed by an African American.
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2012 photos: Equipment this year: My mainstays were the Fuji S100fs, Nikon D7000, and the new Fuji X-S1. I also used an underwater Fuji XP50 and a Nikon D600. The first three cameras all broke this year and had to be repaired.
Trips this year:
three Civil War Trust conferences (Shepherdstown, WV, Richmond, VA, and Williamsburg, VA),
a week-long family reunion cruise of the Caribbean,
another week-long family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with lots of in-transit time in Ohio and Indiana), and
my 7th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including side trips to Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, etc).
Ego strokes: I had a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post. I had a photograph of the George Segal San Francisco Holocaust memorial used as the cover of Quebec Francais (issue 165). Not being able to read French, I'm not entirely sure what the article is about but, hey! And I guess what could be considered to be a positive thing, my site is now established enough that spammers have noticed it and I had to block 17,000 file description postings for Viagra and whatever else..
Number of photos taken this year: just below 410,000.
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