Identity, resilience and community: early Black portrait photography – in pictures

The Guardian · Briana Ellis-Gibbs · 2026-11-06 11:00 UTC

A new Washington DC exhibition shows how African Americans have used portrait photography to depict themselves, their communities, their aspirations and their identities

A new Washington DC exhibition aims to show how African Americans have used portrait photography to depict themselves, their communities, their aspirations and their identities. Titled Remember Me: Picturing African Americans in Early Photography, the exhibit at the National Gallery of Art features 70 works from the museum’s archives by African American photographers and portrait subjects, tracing the evolution of photography in Black communities. The show opens on 7 November and runs until 14 March 2027

James Van Der Zee, Portrait of a Couple, 1924. Photograph: National Gallery of Art, Robert B Menschel fund, James Van Der Zee archive, the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Joseph D Marsters, Martha Ann ‘Patty’ Atavis and Anna Whitridge, 1848

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