The Next Page: How Teenie Harris learned to be a photographer
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The Teenie Harris exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art solidifies the photographer's place as one of the nation's premier photographers of black America. Teenie's story will forever be that of a man whose images captured the beauty, dignity and humanity of black Pittsburghers between the 1930s and 1980s.
The story, however, gets better.
It turns out that Teenie's uncle, William T. Taliaferro (1870-1948), was the city's first black professional photographer, the person who may have taught Teenie the craft, and a worthy portrait photographer in his own right.
Thanks to the foresightedness of William's granddaughters (Janice Brown, Janet Moyo and Lois Gilkes), his hundreds of photos, many dating back to the late 19th and early 20th century, have been saved for posterity. It also turns out that Teenie's grandson, Taun Henderson, is an up-and-coming photographer based in Atlanta whose work carries the family photographic tradition into the 21st century.
There is, in other words, a fascinating "Before Teenie" as well as "After Teenie" sequel to the story. It's quite a family, and quite a family affair.
William T. Taliaferro was the brother of Teenie's mother, Ella Mae (Olga). Born in Maryland in 1870, William began in photography at age 16, first with the W.C. Bell Co. and then, for 35 years, from about 1908 to 1943, as a photo finisher for the B.K. Elliott photographic supply and film processing company located Downtown on Sixth Street.
Like most Taliaferros, William was very light-skinned, passably white, which may explain how, in an era of racial discrimination and Jim Crow, he could have held a responsible position with a prominent Downtown firm. William certainly did not pass for white in the community, however. He belonged to Pittsburgh's oldest and most prestigious black congregation, Bethel AME Church, and helped found the Loendi Club, the city's premier organization for elite black men.
In 1892, the 22-year-old William married Ada Lowe, a descendant of two prominent and wealthy black families, the Lowes and Waters. The couple settled in an all-white neighborhood in Homewood, where they raised two boys and eight girls in an elegantly furnished, 21/2-story house at 7732 Tioga St.
In the basement, William maintained a darkroom where, according to Taliaferro family tradition, Teenie learned photography.
Exactly how Teenie mastered the craft of photography and darkroom techniques is not certain. Teenie credited Johnny Taylor, a colleague at the Pittsburgh Courier, as the one who "taught me the ropes," but it is likely he already knew quite a bit about photography before that. Even before publishing in the Courier in 1938, he already was working as a freelance photographer for Flash magazine.
Three things suggest William mentored Teenie.
• The first is proximity: Teenie lived at 7604 Mulford St., just a five or 10-minute walk from the Taliaferros.
• The second is family memory: William's granddaughter, Lois Gilkes, who was born in 1927 (the same year as Little Teenie), grew up nearby on Singer Place and frequently visited her grandparents. Lois remembers Teenie visiting the family and going downstairs with "Grandpop" to the darkroom. Lois's says her mother long maintained that Teenie learned photography from William: "My mother used to say everything that Teenie knew he got from his uncle. That's what mama used to say."
• The third are the Taliaferro photos themselves, including one sumptuous photo of Teenie [below] that is not in the Harris collection.
At the very least, Uncle William served as a role model, living proof that one could make a comfortable living in photography, a reassurance Teenie may have needed in order to get out of the numbers business with his brother Woogie. The latter loaned Teenie money to open his studio, but warned him: "You can't make money taking pictures."
Teenie replied, in effect, "let me try."
Incorporating the story of William Taliaferro into that of Teenie extends the Harris-Taliaferro family's involvement in photography back to the turn of the century. He left us hundreds of photographs and portraits on glass, tin types as well as paper that, like those of his nephew Teenie, convey a sense of pride and dignity and humanity.
If the "before" part of the Teenie story focuses on his uncle William, the "after" part focuses on his grandson, Taun Henderson, the son of Teenie's daughter, Cheryl Ann. Taun says that after his mother's divorce they moved in with Teenie and his wife Elsa in the 1980s. The experience gave Taun an ambivalent attitude toward photography.
On the one hand, those years were difficult. "We were poor ... I knew and admired my grandfather but wanted nothing to do with the photography as a livelihood. I wanted to wear a suit and work Downtown, and make money. Photography did not make money."
On the other hand, although Teenie never taught Taun photography, the grandson retains fond memories of going out on photo shoots with him. Perhaps, as Taun says, photography was "in my blood." From the time he was in middle school, he had a camera and loved photography.
He became the informal photographer for his friends and events. As a student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, he swelled with pride when his photography professor admired his grandfather's Teenie's work. After graduating, Taun worked at a number of jobs in retail before leaving the corporate world in 2009 and opening his own photography business in Atlanta. He called it "One Shot Photography" in honor of his grandfather. Taun specializes in weddings, and his approach has similarities to that of Teenie.
Taun is an admitted "people person" who likes to "have fun" on a shoot so that his clients enjoy the experience. He wants his pictures to "tell a story," one that makes them feel good about themselves. His images, like those of Teenie, also exude refinement, beauty and sophistication while capturing the subjects' humanity. Taun consciously feels he is carrying on his grandfather's tradition.
Taun promises to extend a family tradition in photography that began with William in the early 20th century well into the 21st. William, Teenie and Taun make this a very long and inspiring "Family Affair."
First Published January 22, 2012 12:00 am
