Ambrotype portrait from an African American studio
Toronto. The NYT article is headlined, “Smithsonian Acquires Rare Photographs From the First African American Studios“. The example Ambrotype image shown here was augmented by a few dashes of colour painted in by hand before the glass plate was carefully placed in the union case, after being bound between a glass front and a dark backing material.
Here in North America, we often see Ambrotype and Daguerreotype portraits by Caucasians taken in studios from about 1839 to the 1870s or so. We rarely see such portraits (of African Americans or any other races) taken by African American photographers. This NYT article by Aruna D’Souza on August 17th of this year (2021) covers the subset of the photograph collection by Larry West acquired by the Smithsonian.
Thanks to my good friend and fellow photography historian, George Dunbar, for sharing this find.
