Segregation, swines and social gatherings: A slice of Black life in Texas – in pictures

Louise Ozelle Martin, society photographer, 1969

During the 20th century, nearly every small town in the US boasted a local studio photographer. These skilled image makers were dedicated to recording the portraits and events of their communities. A new exhibition showcases African American photography in rural and urban areas of Texas, underscoring the community photographer’s role in bolstering self-esteem by documenting local life and culture. Kinship & Community is at CPW, Kingston, New York from 20 September 2025 to 11 January 2026

Photograph: Anonymous/Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP)

Social tea hosted by Josie Washington (centre in black dress), Dallas, Texas. c 1955

Much of this vernacular visual culture has been dispersed or destroyed. Kinship & Community takes a look at a rare slice of that history, focusing on the work of Black community photographers working in urban Dallas and Houston and small towns in East Texas from 1942 to 1984

Photograph: Anonymous (Washington)/Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP)

Methodist church vacation bible school, 1956

Central to the exhibition is the social role of the community photographer, as one who documents, even shapes, a close-knit place, emphasising the people and rituals of everyday life

Photograph: Alonzo Jordan/Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP)

Children playing handclapping games, Dallas, Texas, c 1965

Although these works span some of the most volatile and consequential years of the civil rights movement, they show collectively the daily experiences of Black life in Texas under segregation

Photograph: A. B. Bell/Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP)

NAACP parade, Houston, Texas, 1976

The photographs in the exhibition feature parties, rodeos, church meetings, parades, political gatherings and schools

Photograph: Benny Joseph/Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP)

Eldorado Ballroom, Houston, Texas, c 1965

Kinship & Community was curated by Nicole R Fleetwood with research assistance from Eva Cilman and Anisa Jackson

Photograph: Benny Joseph/Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP)

Photograph: Benny Joseph/Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP)

Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins, Houston, Texas, 1972

The Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP) was founded in 1995 by writer and film-maker Alan Govenar and artist Kaleta Doolin

Photograph: Benny Joseph/Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP)

Stock Show Swine Sale Gr. Champ, San Antonio, Texas, c 1972

TAAP is a project of the Dallas-based cultural organisation Documentary Arts, a unique repository that preserves over 60,000 photographs by Black small-town Texas photographers, from 1870 to the present

Photograph: Zintgraff Photography/Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP)

Josie Washington teaching home economics at Lincoln High School in Dallas, Texas, c 1940s

Alan Govenar, who founded Documentary Arts in 1985, and co-founded the Texas African American Photography archive in 1995, writes: ‘My work with Benny Joseph predates the founding of the archive, and was the first travelling exhibition organised by Documentary Arts in 1987. It toured 29 museums and cultural institutions around the country over a period of six years’

Photograph: Anonymous/Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP)

11th Chapter observing Black History Month, Houston, Texas, c 1980s

‘Benny Joseph introduced me to Herbert Provost, Louise Martin, Elnora Frazier, Juanita Williams and Hiram Dotson, who all contributed prints to the archive’

Photograph: Hiram Dotson/Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP)

Family reunion, c 1955

The CWP autumn schedule of exhibitions also includes Rahim Fortune: Between a Memory and Me, which examines the histories and rituals that shape southern Black communities, and Everyday Culture: Seven Projects by Documentary Arts, which presents photographs, films, music and folk art that chronicle marginalised cultural traditions

Photograph: Alonzo Jordan/Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP)

Funeral, Tyler, Texas, c 1965

These three exhibitions could not be more relevant today, when attempts to rectify the injustices of history are being undermined by the politics of erasure

Photograph: Curtis Humphrey/Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP)