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Exceptional People in the African Diaspora was the debut exhibition
by the newly formed Louisville Alliance of African American
Photographers (LAAAP). The 2013 Photo Biennial was the
appropriate occasion for the debut exhibition of LAAAP as part
of Louisville’s premier photographic festival.
Members of LAAAP are committed to photographically
documenting the culture and history of communities in both
the Metro Louisville area, as well as throughout the African
Diaspora. Their work provide vicarious experiences for audiences
to broaden their awareness and challenge any negative
perceptions commonly held about people of African descent.
LAAAP is based at the Kentucky Center for African American
Heritage (KCAAH), to provide a resource to support this vital and
contemporary institution's mission to enhance the public's
knowledge about the history, heritage and cultural contributions
of African-Americans in Kentucky.
This exhibit focused on the theme Exceptional People in the
African Diaspora. The African Diaspora refers to the
communities throughout the world that are descended from the
historic movement of peoples from Africa. This exhibit featured
exceptional African-Americans, and African descendants
who reside in Kentucky, and other places nationally and
internationally. The images feature famous people, or those who
are not at all famous, but deserve recognition for their admirable
qualities or achievements.
The photography represented in this exhibition illuminated intersections between communities throughout the African Diaspora. The aim was to illustrate common stories of resistance, celebrations, struggles for freedom, and spirituality evoking a sense of the richness of African cultural
identity. In providing glimpses of Africans and African
descendants throughout the Diaspora, LAAAP intended for the exhibition to encourage audiences to study the full range of the “African”
experience.
"The significance of this exhibit was that it gave us a chance to profile some noted African American photograpers and to come together as the newly formed Louisville Alliance of African American Photographers (LAAAP).
Our mission is to document the history and culture of African Americans in Kentucky, nationally and internationally."
Aukram Burton, Exhibit and Program Chair
The Kentucky Center for African American Heritage
The exhibiting photographers represent a wide range of expertise and experience in the field as reflected in the following short biographies.
Aukram Burton
Is an educator, media artist, and media producer. His educational background include studies at the New England School of Photography; B.A in Art, and a M.Ed. in Instructional Design from the University of Massachusetts, Boston; research fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Advanced Visual Studies; and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in International Education from the Center for International Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
He is the 1991 American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Crystal recipient. He is the 1998 recipient of a Regional Artists Project Grant from the Arts and Science Council in Charlotte, North Carolina. Aukram is the recipient of the 2005 Brown Forman Purchase Award in the Eleventh Annual African American Juried Art Exhibition at Actors Theatre Louisville.
The award winning images were taken during the 7th
World Congress of Òrìsà Tradition (ÒrìsàWorld 2001) in Ilé-Ifè, Nigeria, West Africa. In 2010, he received the Molly Leonard Community Service Award, recognized by District 5 Councilwoman Cheri Bryant Hamilton for the important role in preserving and recording the Louisville’s social, cultural and civic history through his photography and videography. He is the 2011, recipient of the Rev. George and Brunhilda Currington Merit Award in the Seventeenth Annual African American Juried Art Exhibition at Actors Theatre Louisville.
Bud Dorsey
has worked as a photojournalist in the urban metro area of Louisville, KY, for more than 40 years. His mission is to educate, enrich and enlighten the world through the artistry of photography.
He believes that positive and skillful documentation of African American history and present communities will not only showcase who African Americans are as a people but will also provide a solid foundation upon which future generations can build.
His mission as an African American photographer is to document the culture and history of African Americans in their communities in Louisville and around the world. His inspiration as a photographer comes from other elder photographers on whose shoulders he stands.
Sam UpShaw, Jr.
of Louisville, KY, received a bachelor's degree in photojournalism at Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY in 1987. While at Western, he completed internships with the Louisville Defender, The Nashville Tennessean and The Los Angeles Times. He has been a photojournalist with The Courier-Journal for the past 26 years which included a four-month loan stint at USA Today in 1994.
In addition to covering the community on a daily basis, he has visually documented Muhammad Ali, Kentucky's poor health, Hurricane Ivan in Florida, a young man dying of sickle cell disease and the University of Louisville's victories at the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and three final four appearances including this year's national championship win in Atlanta.
Sam has received awards in the Kentucky News Photographer's Association contest where he won Best of Show in 1989 and was runner-up for photographer of the year in the National Association of Black Journalists’ Salute to Excellence Awards the same year.
Keith Williams
resides in West Louisville. Keith started his career in photojournalism in Henderson, KY, where Walter Dear publisher of the Henderson Gleaner gave him the opportunity to work for the local newspaper while he was still in high school.
The Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper offered him a staff photographer position in 1973. AI Allen was the director of photography and invited Keith up to work with the some of the best photographers in the United States.
At that time The photography department has earn two Pulitzer Prizes. He retired from the Courier-Journal in 2007. Keith believes that there are people doing exceptional work in our community everyday.
For example, Keith chose to honor, Fred Stoner and Leroy Emerson Stoner in this exhibit. Stoner was the assistant recreation director for Presbyterian Community Center in "Smoketown," a community refuge for boys and girls after school and during the summers. Stoner taught them how to roller-skating, fencing, wrestling and judo.
He has been given credit for teaching Muhammad Ali some of his skills in boxing. Leroy Emerson was a quiet man who did not speak unless he had something important to say. He was in the corner of Heavyweight Champion Greg Page. Emerson had been a boxer himself and knew the strategy of the ring.
Eddie Davis
was born Edward Davis III in Louisville in 1950. He attended Immaculate Heart of Mary Elementary School and graduated from both Flaget High School and Jefferson Community College (the latter with an Associate Degree in Liberal Arts). Davis also attended the University of Louisville.
He was introduced to photography by his father, Edward Davis Jr., who was a photographer in the military during WorId War II and was a cofounder, with his brother William "Bill" Davis of the Davis Trade School, which specialized in teaching trades to African American veterans during the early 1950s.
Eddie began taking pictures in high school for the Flaget yearbook and worked for the Courier Journal as a photographer from 1975-1983.
He has been committed to documenting the social justice movement since the early 1990s. Eddie is a member of the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and the Justice Resource Center, and has been since the days of Anne Braden and Rev. Louis Coleman.
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Jack Norris
was born in Alexander City, Alabama, and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. He majored in history and sociology at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama. Later he studied photography at Los Angeles Trades Technical College and Otis/Parson Art Institute in Los Angeles, California. After seeing photographs by the Louisville Defender's Bud Dorsey, Gordon Parks, Bruce Davidson, Esther Bubley, John Howard Griffin and Eddie Davis, Jack was inspired to use photography to tell the story of what his world was like.
He worked for years as youth oriented community organizer in Louisville, Atlanta and the Bed-Sty neighborhood in New York City. Much of his work focused on youth street gangs, in Los Angeles he worked with Crips, Bloods and Cholos. He photographed in Nicaragua doing the conflict between the Sandinistas and the Contras.
More of Jack Norris's photographs can be seem at the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research. He has work in the University of Louisville Special Collections: Photographic Archives. Jack's photos have been exhibited at J.B Speed Museum, the Hite Art Institute, Wayside Expressions Gallery, Bernheim Gallery, E&S Art Gallery, Swanson/Reed Art Gallery, the UofL Cressman Center for Visual Arts, South Beach Art Festival, Miami, FL, and the Watts Summer Festival, Los Angeles, CA.
George Williams
has been a photographer for over 25 yrs. His work has been published both locally and nationally. Williams‘ concentration is in news and sports magazine photography, public relations.
Williams provides photographic services for several Public Relation companies in the area. His photography focuses on U of L, U of K and local high school sports. His career has led him to do some television sports analysis. See more of Mr. Williams works at:
Marvin Young
of Covington, Kentucky has parlayed a communication degree earned in 1989 at the University of Louisville into a career of more than 23 years of effective and purposeful image making.
Young has been a full-time photographer for the Kentucky Office of Creative Services since 2008 and an official photographer for the Kentucky Derby Festival for more than 18 years.
In the years prior, he held communications/public relations and photojournalism positions for the National Center for Family Literacy, UofL Office of Communications and Marketing, and The Louisville Defender Newspaper.
Along the way, Young consistently captured images that greatly impacted each organization's visual identity and mass appeal, receiving top awards in photography from the Kentucky Association of Government Communicators, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and PRSA-IABC.
The images Young selected for Exceptional People in the African Diaspora were taken between 1996 and September 2013. The art of capturing an image that presents a meaningful story without uttering a word compels Marvin Young. "
In an age when we are bombarded with information, it's more important than ever to understand how a provocative image can etch into the mind and never be forgotten," says Young.
For more information on Marvin Young and his gallery of photos visit: www.myphotographer.biz
