Exhibit of 987 Teenie Harris photos tells the story of life in Pittsburgh during the 1930s-'70s
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Teenie Harris, holding camera and standing on sidewalk, c. 1938. -
Boxer Harry Bobo, 1941. -
Herron Avenue at the intersection of Milwaukee Street, Hill District, c. 1938-1945.
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Prepare to be transported to another time and place when you visit "Teenie Harris, Photographer: An American Story," opening this weekend at Carnegie Museum of Art.
And you might want to wear your dancing shoes.
Charles "Teenie" Harris, who was born in Pittsburgh in 1908 and died in 1998, was a photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, a leading black newspaper with a national reach. For 40 years, from the 1930s to the 1970s, Mr. Harris photographed celebrities and politicians. But he also photographed everyday life in Pittsburgh's Hill District -- a thriving African-American community -- ultimately documenting a vibrant period in both a neighborhood's and a nation's history.
The Carnegie, which is keeper of the Harris archives, is exhibiting 987 of those images in a welcoming presentation that draws visitors into Mr. Harris' world.
"We're staying out of the way. We didn't want to put the museum between the viewer and the images," said Louise Lippincott, Carnegie curator of fine arts and exhibition project manager.
In the introductory gallery, visitors pass between wall-sized photographs of Mr. Harris, taken in the early 1950s, and a Hill District street scene circa the 1940s -- and then step into an era.
Seven constantly changing projections play large on the walls of a darkened room accompanied by a jazz soundtrack composed by MCG Jazz for the exhibition. Surrounded by music and imagery that morphs audibly and visually through the decades of Mr. Harris' work, it's hard to stand still while looking, a forgivable shift in usual museum decorum.
"We want to immerse people in his life," said Shannon Harvey of Stowe Nash Associates, who was finessing the synchronization of music and pictures. He is one of many outside contractors who have contributed to this unique exhibition.
The Manchester Craftsmen's Guild group based its composition on the Pittsburgh jazz sound from 1935 to 1975. "Sounds you would have heard at the Crawford Grill at that time," Mr. Harvey said.
The projected images are organized into seven subject groupings, each about 24 minutes in length: "Crossroads," "Gatherings," "Urban Landscapes," "Style," "At Home," "The Rise and Fall of the Crawford Grill" and "Words and Signs." While most are specific to the Hill District and predominantly of African-American life, they quickly become relatable, even nostalgic, for anyone who has been proud of a family member in uniform, joyfully whipped around in a pedal car, gathered to hear President John F. Kennedy speak, attended a wedding or any of the everyday activities that marked American culture in the middle of the past century.
First Published October 26, 2011 12:00 am
