Current:Home > MyHow photographer Frank Stewart captured the culture of jazz, church and Black life in the US-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
How photographer Frank Stewart captured the culture of jazz, church and Black life in the US
View Date:2024-12-23 15:36:36
CHADDS FORD, Pa. (AP) — At first glance, it looks like an aerial photo of a cemetery destroyed by war, with charred coffins ripped from broken concrete vaults and arched marble tombstones flattened by a bomb blast.
Then, the viewer begin to discern details: the coffins and vaults are actually parts of a keyboard. Instead of names and dates, the apparent tombstones are inscribed with words like “vibrato” and “third harmonic.”
“It looks like a graveyard,” photographer Frank Stewart said.
Stewart’s ghostly photograph of a New Orleans church organ ravaged by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina is part of a career retrospective of his decades documenting Black life in America and exploring African and Caribbean cultures.
“Frank Stewart’s Nexus: An American Photographer’s Journey, 1960s to the Present,” is on display at the Brandywine Museum of Art through Sept. 22. Brandywine is the fourth and final stop for the exhibition, which was organized by The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia.
“I wanted to talk about the Black church and what influence they had on the culture,” Stewart said of his post-Katrina work in New Orleans. “This organ, the music and everything corresponds. It all comes together. I just wanted to show the devastation of churches and the music and the culture.”
Music is elemental to Stewart’s practice. He was the long-time photographer for the Savannah Music Festival, and for 30 years he was the senior staff photographer for Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, which paired him with artistic director and Grammy-winning musician Wynton Marsalis.
“He’s like my brother,” said Stewart, whose exhibition includes “Stomping the Blues,” a 1997 photograph of Marsalis leading his orchestra off the stage during a world tour of his Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz oratorio “Blood on the Fields.”
Stewart, who was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and Chicago, has his own ties to jazz and blues. His stepfather, Phineas Newborn Jr., was a pianist who worked with the likes of musicians Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus and B.B. King.
Describing himself as a child of the “apartheid South,” Stewart has drawn inspiration from photographers such as Ernest Cole and Roy DeCarava, who was among Stewart’s instructors at New York’s Cooper Union, where Stewart received a bachelor of fine arts degree. DeCarava’s photographs of 1950s Harlem led to a collaboration with Langston Hughes on the 1955 book, “The Sweet Flypaper of Life.”
Cole, a South African photographer, achieved acclaim in 1967 with “House of Bondage,” the first book to inspire Stewart. It chronicled apartheid using photographs he smuggled out of the country. Cole was never able to replicate his early success and fell on hard times before dying at age 49 in New York City. A documentary about him, “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,” premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
“He came to New York and he was homeless in New York, so I would see him on the street and we would talk,” said Stewart, who is quick to draw a distinction between his work and Cole’s.
“I consider myself an artist more than a documentarian,” explained Stewart, who attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before enrolling at Cooper Union and was a longtime friend and collaborator of artist Romare Bearden.
That’s not to say Stewart doesn’t have journalistic instincts in his blood. He recounts a work history that includes the Chicago Defender, the largest Black-owned daily in the country at the time, and stringing for Ebony, Essence and Black Enterprise magazines. He looks back less fondly on a short stint of large-format work photographing fine art for brochures and catalogs, an undertaking he described as “tedious.”
Through it all though, Stewart has maintained an artistic approach to his work, looking to combine pattern, color, tone and space in a visually appealing manner while not leaving the viewer searching for the message.
“It has to still be ‘X marks the spot,’” he explained. “It still has to be photographic. It can’t be just abstract.”
Or maybe it can. How else to explain the color and texture seen in “Blue Car, Havana” from 2002?
“It’s all about abstract painting,” Stewart said in wall text accompanying the photo.
The retrospective shines a light on how Stewart’s work has evolved over time, from early black-and-white photographs to his more recent prints, which feature more color.
“It’s two different languages,” he said. “English would be the black and white. French would be the color.”
“I worked in color the whole time, I just didn’t have the money to print them,” he added.
While photography can inform people about the world around them, Stewart has noted there is a gulf between the real world and a photograph.
“Reality is a fact, and a photograph is another fact,” he explained. “The map is not the territory. It’s just a map of the territory.”
veryGood! (3)
Related
- Fire crews on both US coasts battle wildfires, 1 dead; Veterans Day ceremony postponed
- New video shows Republican congressman scolding Jan. 6 rioters through barricaded House Chamber
- Florence Pugh continues sheer Valentino dress tradition at 2024 Golden Globes: See pics
- Rams vs. Lions playoff preview: Matthew Stafford, Jared Goff face former teams in wild-card round
- Beyoncé course coming to Yale University to examine her legacy
- Florida Republicans vote on removing party chairman accused of rape as DeSantis pins hopes on Iowa
- 12 Top-Rated Amazon Finds That Will Make Your Daily Commute More Bearable
- Jo Koy, Bradley Cooper more bring family members as dates to Golden Globes: See photos
- Will Reeve, son of Christopher Reeve, gets engaged to girlfriend Amanda Dubin
- Golden Globe Awards 2024 Winners: The Complete List
Ranking
- Deion Sanders doubles down on vow to 99-year-old Colorado superfan
- Billie Eilish's Chic 2024 Golden Globes Look Proves She's Made for the Red Carpet
- Josh Allen rallies Bills for 21-14 win over Dolphins. Buffalo secures No. 2 seed in AFC
- Ariana Grande teases fans with new music release this Friday
- US Election Darkens the Door of COP29 as It Opens in Azerbaijan
- Once Known for Its Pollution, Pittsburgh Becomes a Poster Child for Climate Consciousness
- Taylor Swift's reaction to Jo Koy's Golden Globes joke lands better than NFL jab
- Golden Globes 12 best dressed: Jaw-dropping red carpet looks from Selena Gomez, Margot Robbie, more
Recommendation
-
Trump has promised to ‘save TikTok’. What happens next is less clear
-
Cindy Morgan, 'Caddyshack' star, found dead at 69 after roommate noticed a 'strong odor'
-
FDA: Recalled applesauce pouches had elevated lead levels and another possible contaminant
-
Margot Robbie Shares How Her Girlfriends Feel About Her Onscreen Kisses With Hollywood's Hottest Men
-
American Idol’s Triston Harper, 16, Expecting a Baby With Wife Paris Reed
-
Florida Republicans vote on removing party chairman accused of rape as DeSantis pins hopes on Iowa
-
With every strike and counterstrike, Israel, the US and Iran’s allies inch closer to all-out war
-
Florence Pugh continues sheer Valentino dress tradition at 2024 Golden Globes: See pics
Like
- Tennessee fugitive accused of killing a man and lying about a bear chase is caught in South Carolina
- 2024 Golden Globes: Jo Koy Shares NSFW Thoughts On Robert De Niro, Barbie and More
- Liz Cheney on whether Supreme Court will rule to disqualify Trump: We have to be prepared to defeat him at ballot box