SNEAK PREVIEW: Through A Lens Darkly

Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People is a two-hour film that will explore the role of photography, since its rudimentary beginnings in the 1840s, in shaping the identity, aspirations, and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present.

Through A Lens Darkly Trailer

Award winning filmmaker, journalist, artist, and activist, Thomas Allen Harris, is currently in production with his fourth feature-length documentary, “Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People.” Co-produced by noted scholar, curator, and author, Dr. Deborah Willis, “Through A Lens Darkly,” is the first documentary and multimedia outreach project that explores how African American communities have used the medium of photography to construct political, aesthetic, and cultural representations of themselves and their world.

The “Through A Lens Darkly” project is part of a new generation of interactive media that expands the boundaries of participatory filmmaking by using both traditional documentary and multimedia platforms to engage television and internet audiences in new, creative, and transformative ways.

15 Responses to SNEAK PREVIEW: Through A Lens Darkly

  1. Brenda Simmons September 6, 2010 at 5:56 pm #

    What a powerful “Sneak Preview” I want MOOOOORE!!!! As a curator, poet, and a lover of the arts, not only does this speak to me personally I KNOW this needs to be SEEN in schools, communities, and in the living rooms of ALL. Let the dialogue/healing begin.

  2. Patricia Brady April 27, 2012 at 11:45 am #

    I hope you've mentioned Florestine Perrault Collins, the Creole photographer of New Orleans. Arthe Anthony has a new book out about her with terrific examples of Creole self-presentation in the Jim Crow world of the early 20th c. And Hi to Deborah Willis.  We were in contact years ago about Jules Lion.  Great work, everybody!

  3. GMARIEDORSEY December 20, 2012 at 3:57 am #

    love this…need and want to see more.  I am an aspiring black photographer.

  4. beau oakley radar magasin September 10, 2014 at 11:52 am #

    Good day! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before
    but after browsing through some of the posts
    I realized it’s new to me. Anyways, I’m definitely happy I stumbled upon it and I’ll be book-marking it and
    checking back regularly!

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Mining the Family Photo Archive - January 26, 2011

    […] own historical investigations through their family archives. So when I started my new film project, Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, (TALD) I thought to create a companion project that would offer a possible solution. TALD (which […]

  2. Photographer Hosts Salon to Honor Black History - February 20, 2011

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    […] and Photographer, Lyle Ashton Harris who is featured in the upcoming feature documentary “Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People” will be in conversation with ground-breaking photographer and painter, Chuck Close, at the […]

  5. Black Vernacular Photography @ ICP - April 11, 2012

    […] photography to create forms of identity and belonging that challenged racist stereotypes. “Through A Lens Darkly” co-producer, Dr. Deborah Willis, will be a feature panelist for this event. For more […]

  6. Sonia Louise Davis: tracing(s) belonging(s) Exhibition at NYPL - May 10, 2012

    […] is an up and coming photographer and also a researcher for the upcoming PBS documentary “Through a Lens Darkly“. En Foco is a non-profit organization that supports contemporary fine art and documentary […]

  7. Thomas Allen Harris Discusses Visual Story-Telling @ the Schomburg Center - September 5, 2012

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  8. Dr. Mary M. Marshalls Shares her appreciate for DDFR - September 6, 2012

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  9. Harris’ Filmmaker Workshop – Tribeca Film Institute @ The New School Workshop - September 27, 2012

    […] Mandela” and “E Minha Cara/That’s My Face”, clips from the PBS documentary “Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People” (currently in post-production), and webisodes from the “Digital Diaspora Family […]

  10. Remembering Photographer Hugh Bell - December 12, 2012

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  11. Augusta, GA: 19th Century African American Father and Son Photographers - April 25, 2013

    […] on two projects: Digital Diaspora Family Reunion (DDFR) and the upcoming documentary “Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (TALD).” Sharing my family photos with DDFR (see “Dr. Marshall’s Photo Mission“) […]

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