LA IMAGEN ROTA

A BILINGUAL PAGE TO COLLECT AND DISCUSS COMMENTS ABOUT FILMS, THEATER AND ART AND SOME POLITICS. ENGLISH/SPANISH

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN                                                                By Gabrielle Hezekiah
(Introduction to the article published on FUSE Magazine winter 1999)
In 1908 and 1909, Sir Harry Johnston, British geographer, artist, diplomat, anthropologist, photographer and naturalist, traveled to the Caribbean seeking information on the political stability of Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and Panama on behalf of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. Johnston was particularly interested in the industriousness (or not) of Blacks and their preparedness to meet the modern economic age. Johnston photographed the everyday lives of Working class Black people out of an interest in the comparative development of the “Negro” in Africa and the Caribbean. He was keen to investigate the “benefits” of colonialism, which supposedly gave Blacks in the Americas an advantage over the African counterparts, and the difference in slavery and colonialism under various European colonizers. Johnston recorded his journey in photographs, several which were reproduced in his 1910 publication. The Negro in the World. From May to October 1998, seventy photographer from the original expedition traveled from their home at the Royal Geographical Society in London to museums and art spaces in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Cuba and Haiti. This migration was a collaborative effort involving the Society, lecturer, critic and curator Dr. Petrine Archer-Straw, and the British Council. The exhibition was called “Photos and Phantasm: Harry Johnston Photographs of the Caribbean.

Haitian Woman and Children, Sir Harry Johston, 1908-09. Royas Geographical Society  
A Market Place, Port au Prince, Sir Harry Johston, 1908-09. Royas Geographical Society

Unripe Coconuts, Trinidad, Sir Harry Johston, 1908-09. Royas Geographical Society

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