The Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) is presenting a groundbreaking exhibition titled "Kinship & Community: Selections from the Texas African American Photography Archive," which runs through January 11, 2026. This comprehensive showcase highlights the work of African American photographers who operated in urban neighborhoods of Dallas and Houston, as well as small towns in East Texas, from 1942 to 1984.
During the 20th century, nearly every small town in America had a studio photographer. These skilled image-makers dedicated themselves to recording portraits and community events, creating a vast visual culture that has largely been scattered or destroyed over time. This exhibition offers a rare glimpse into this forgotten history, specifically focusing on the contributions of Black community photographers who documented their neighborhoods and social circles.
At the heart of the exhibition is the social role of the community photographer, who not only documented but also helped shape close-knit communities by emphasizing people and the rituals of daily life. The photographs in "Kinship & Community" showcase various aspects of community life, including parties, rodeos, church gatherings, parades, political rallies, and class photos. These images collectively reveal the everyday experiences of Black life in Texas during the era of segregation.
Although these works span some of the most tumultuous and defining years of the Civil Rights Movement, they provide an intimate look at the ordinary moments that made up African American community life in Texas. The photographs demonstrate how community photographers served as both chroniclers and shapers of their neighborhoods, capturing the bonds of kinship and community that sustained people through challenging times.
The photographs featured in this exhibition come from the Texas African American Photography Archive (TAAP), which was founded in 1995 by writer and filmmaker Alan Govenar and artist Kaleta Doolin. TAAP operates as a project of Documentary Arts, a Dallas-based cultural organization that has created a unique repository preserving more than 60,000 photographs created by Black photographers from small Texas towns dating from 1870 to the present day.
This remarkable archive includes work from more than a dozen independent photography studios, making it one of the most comprehensive collections of African American vernacular photography in the United States. The archive represents decades of community documentation that might otherwise have been lost to time, preserving an essential visual record of Black life in Texas.
The exhibition is accompanied by a forthcoming publication edited by Nicole R. Fleetwood and Brian Wallis, titled "Kinship & Community: Selections from the Texas African American Photography Archive," which will be published by Aperture and Documentary Arts in winter 2025. The Center for Photography at Woodstock is located at 25 Dederick Street in Kingston, New York, and more information about the exhibition can be found at www.cpw.org.
