{"id":8393,"date":"2020-12-02T16:59:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T16:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=8393"},"modified":"2021-01-07T18:01:58","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T18:01:58","slug":"the-pictures-to-prove-it-engaging-history-with-jim-alexander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=8393","title":{"rendered":"The Pictures to Prove It: Engaging History with Jim Alexander"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pictures to Prove It: <\/b>Engaging History with Jim Alexander<\/span><\/p>\n

by D. Amari Jackson<\/i><\/b><\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
Imagine making a quantum leap back through time and hanging out with Romare Bearden<\/a> as the iconic artist graced the historic Neighborhood Arts Center in Atlanta. Or gathering on the steps of Spelman College with Gwendolyn Brooks, Pearl Cleage, Toni Cade Bambara, Sonia Sanchez<\/a>, and Nikki Giovanni as they excitedly surrounded newly inaugurated college president Johnnetta Cole. Or hovering above thousands from a raised signpost on New York\u2019s Amsterdam Avenue outside St. John\u2019s Cathedral to witness the funeral of the legendary Duke Ellington. Or risking death by breaking away from a rally against hate in the notoriously racist town of Tupelo, Mississippi, to confront the Ku Klux Klan with activist Skip Robinson at a location where no one was watching.<\/span><\/p>\n
Unlike most of us, Jim Alexander doesn\u2019t have to imagine. \u00a0He was there. He has the pictures to prove it.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI documented things I was interested in, or things I was involved in, or things I was mad about, or things I love, like music,\u201d reveals Alexander, noting his affinity for<\/span> \u201c<\/span>Black culture and human rights.\u00a0 If there\u2019s a March, rally, concert, or something like that going on, I go and shoot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
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Micheal Lomax & Romare Bearden
Atlanta, GA 1978 Photo By Jim Alexander<\/p><\/div>\n
He has done so for over 60 years.\u00a0 Along with visually documenting such legendary figures as Angela Davis, Miles Davis, and Amiri Baraka, the award-winning photographer, teacher, and activist has mentored countless others in photography and social justice, be it in the community or at institutions like the Yale University<\/span> School of Art and Architecture.\u00a0 In 1972, while teaching at Yale, Alexander created<\/span> the Freedom Arts Communications Team (F.A.C.T.), a collective of Black artists who managed a visiting artist program serving New Haven residents.\u00a0 In 1977,<\/span> he was named photographer-in-residence at Atlanta’s Neighborhood Arts Center.\u00a0 In 1985, Alexander was appointed photographer-in-residence at what is now Clark Atlanta University and, three years later, cofounded First World Bookstores which, at its height, included five stores specializing in African American culture.\u00a0 In 1995, he was the first artist chosen for the Atlanta Masters Series by City Gallery East and, on October 18, 2000, Alexander was presented the Photojournalist of a Lifetime award for his documentary work by JOCADA.<\/span><\/p>\n
But for all the spry 85 year-old\u2019s extraordinary life experiences and his superior knowledge of the art of photography, the main thing separating Alexander from the hordes of other camera-wielding image-takers is his commitment to not only watch and capture, but take part. Comparable to the \u201cobserver effect\u201d in quantum mechanics where the observed is influenced by the acknowledged presence of the observer, Alexander characterizes himself as a \u201cparticipant observer\u201d who photographed \u201cwhat I wanted.<\/span> I didn\u2019t shoot a lot of assignments, given I wasn\u2019t interested in being a media photographer.\u201d Rather, he commonly employed his lens to highlight or advance a cause, be it the Black power, Black arts, civil rights, or antiwar movements. \u201cOh, I was involved in a lot of the stuff,\u201d affirms Alexander, before clarifying he \u201cwasn\u2019t much of a joiner\u201d but participated with, befriended, and supported organizations ranging from international human rights groups to the Black Panthers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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Jim & Gordon
Atlanta, GA 1988<\/p><\/div>\n
Early on, some close to him questioned his focus on causes over assignments. His mentor, the iconic Gordon Parks, who he\u2019d met through a program involving Parks\u2019 son, had once told him, \u201cNobody is gonna pay you to just run around and shoot whatever it is you want to shoot, James.\u201d But Alexander, who lacked a college degree, had a plan to go to photography school, \u201cget that piece of paper\u201d and teach photography while doing his own photodocumentary work. Twenty years later\u2014long after attending the New York Institute of Photography and being hired by Yale University to teach<\/span> photography to students\u2014Alexander opened an exhibit on the legacy of the blues that<\/span> Parks attended at Atlanta\u2019s Apex museum. \u201cSo we walked through all the pictures as people would try to come up and talk to him, but he would just wave them off,\u201d remembers Alexander.\u00a0 \u201cWhen we were finished, he said to me, \u2018Well, Jim, it looks like you ran around and shot what you wanted to shoot.\u201d A smiling Alexander \u00a0admits \u201cthat made me feel really good, hearing that from him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
The shooting commenced with a bet. Upon enlisting in the Navy in 1952, the Waldwick, New Jersey native won a game of dice against a white recruit at<\/span> boot camp in Bainbridge, Maryland. When the latter could not pay the $10 bet, he instead gave 18-year-old<\/span> Alexander a boxed camera to hold as collateral until payday. Once payday came, the recruit didn\u2019t want to part with his $10, the extent of his pay. \u201cHe said, \u2018Man, keep the camera, I ain\u2019t shootin\u2019 no pictures,\u201d recalls Alexander, adding the recruit then confided that \u201cmy mother made me bring it. I ain\u2019t shootin\u2019 no pictures.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
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Jim \/ Navy
Bainbridge, MD 1952<\/p><\/div>\n
But Alexander did. He immediately put his new camera to use, taking pictures of fellow sailors and selling them for fifty cents each, despite costing pennies to produce. As a hustler, gambler, and drinker, the camera became the young Alexander\u2019s latest tool for engaging people and making money. After camp,<\/span> he was transferred to a naval base in Charleston, South Carolina to train as a diesel engineman. \u00a0There,<\/span> a naval base photographer was impressed by Alexander\u2019s abilities and began tutoring him in large format and 35-millimeter photography.<\/span><\/p>\n
Four years later, after touring numerous bases throughout the country, Alexander was discharged before<\/span> returning to Paterson, New Jersey, and leaving photography behind\u2014literally. The hundreds of photos he\u2019d taken during his service years were left at his California base home, never to be seen again.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Worse, what Alexander failed to leave behind was his growing problem with alcohol. In early 1964, while hustling, running an underground gambling network, and living with a cousin, the heavy drinker had a catharsis. \u201cI woke up one morning and went to the dresser to get a drink,\u201d remembers Alexander, who \u201calways had a bottle around. I poured some wine in a cup and when I went to drink it, I heard this voice saying, \u2018Boy, you\u2019re killing yourself.\u2019 I heard the voice plain as day. I put the cup back down.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
That February, one of Alexander\u2019s gambling associates and former drinking buddies\u2014an alcoholic who\u2019d bottomed out seven months prior, before his family intervened\u2014convinced the struggling 29-year-old to join him in Springfield, MA and get his life together. Alexander stayed for four months, working for his friend\u2019s brother in a sheet rock business. \u201cI had gotten that thing off of me, and was ready to come back to Jersey,\u201d says Alexander, who then rented a<\/span> furnished apartment in Clifton, away from the negative influences of Paterson. While making good money detailing cars, he picked up photography once more as a way of passing time and staying sober. He enrolled at the New York Institute of Photography and, on a bus ride to school, met a fellow photographer who worked for a filmstrip producer in Jersey and invited Alexander to visit. Soon after, Alexander began volunteering for the studio, which produced educational content on the civil rights movement, while earning his degree in commercial photography. His work attracted attention and he began compiling a list of increasingly high-profile clients, eventually adding the likes of<\/span> Johnson Publishing Company, Ford Motor Company, and the City of Paterson.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. The impact on Alexander was substantial as he produced \u201cSpirits\/Martyrs\/Heroes,\u201d an ambitious collection of work spanning decades, civil and human rights movements, politics, music, art, and everyday advocates of social justice.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cSome can just take pictures and not get involved, but Jim was always passionate about reading, being a lifelong learner, and representing his people,\u201d says Dr. R. Candy Tate,<\/span> Assistant Director at Emory College Center for Creativity and Arts. An art historian and longtime mentee of Alexander, Tate sits on the board of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation and runs a non-profit dedicated to the same. She stresses the relevance of Alexander\u2019s<\/span> \u201c<\/span>participant observer\u201d role and how his historic collection was sparked by \u201cseeing King misrepresented in newspapers.\u201d This \u201cstarted him on his path to documenting spirits, martyrs, and heroes and, from that point on, it became what he was about.\u201d While others, continues Tate, \u201cmight just sit and observe, Jim was involved in making change\u201d and fully understood \u201cthe power of the lens.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Such powerful sentiment is further captured by graphic designer-photographer<\/span> Renay Nailon in her biographical sketch of Alexander.<\/span>\u00a0\u201c<\/span>A photo can be taken to build or it can be taken to destroy and that decision rests within the hands of the photographer,\u201d penned Nailon, who has worked with Alexander for a decade. \u201cAlexander understood the effects his photography could have on the psyches of the viewer and the subject.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Tate understands the effect Alexander has on those he mentors. \u201cI like to credit Jim with me being who I am,\u201d says the successful<\/span> Atlanta native, who once left the city to attend grad school in Wisconsin. The summer she returned, \u201cI<\/span> was at a festival in Piedmont Park and met Jim and learned about photography and about our history. It\u2019s funny, because I was going to a majority school, and he would always laugh and say, \u2018You know, I don\u2019t have more than an eighth-grade education.\u2019 But he was teaching me more than my teachers had ever taught.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
In the early 70s, while teaching at Yale, Alexander was reminded of the same when a white student made the mistake of addressing him as \u201cDr. Alexander.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cThose who knew me thought that was funny<\/span> and started joking about my \u2018eighth-grade education,\u201d recalls Alexander, laughing.\u00a0 He reports how the stunned student left the class for the dean\u2019s office to complain that his photography teacher didn\u2019t possess \u201ca terminal degree.\u201d It later came out that the dean, who was well aware of Alexander\u2019s superior knowledge of photography and culture, told the student that if he didn\u2019t get back to class, his career at Yale would soon become \u201cterminal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
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SisterLove
Atlanta, GA 1988 Photo By Jim Alexander<\/p><\/div>\n
In 1971, Alexander opened a photo studio showcasing the works of other photographers along with his own. Before long, the New Haven studio became a gathering spot for students, artists, activists, and the surrounding community. It further served as a base for his development of F.A.C.T., which included visual artists, musicians, media professionals, poets, stage actors, and community advocates.\u00a0 The collection worked with local schools, established a community arts festival, and instituted a visiting artist program for the local community.<\/span><\/p>\n
By the mid-70s\u2014after Alexander moved south to<\/span> direct<\/span> audiovisual communications for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives\u2014Atlanta\u2019s increasing involvement in the<\/span> Black Arts Movement had coalesced with mayor<\/span> Maynard Jackson\u2019s establishment of the Neighborhood Arts Center. In 1977, he was named photographer-in-residence at the NAC and began documenting and preserving the institution\u2019s real-time history. A decade later, upon earning the same position at Clark College,<\/span> Alexander produced \u201cDuke and Other Legends: Jazz Photographs by Jim Alexander,\u201d an exhibit boasting 50 classical jazz musicians touring 13 cities under a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Southern Arts Federation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
In 1988, Alexander\u2019s affinity for reading and Black culture prompted his cofounding of First World Bookstore in Atlanta, which quickly grew to a five-store chain before shutting down in 1994 amidst changing industry practices and technologies. A year later, Atlanta\u2019s City Gallery East hosted a retrospective exhibition of more than 200 of Alexander\u2019s photographs, \u201cJim Alexander: Telling Our Story.\u201d The historic exhibition was on display for the 1996 Olympics.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Telling his own stories was something Alexander had consistently dedicated his career to. Back in the 70s, as he was preparing his own photos for an exhibit, Alexander was stunned when his legendary mentor, Gordon Parks, revealed that he couldn\u2019t do exhibits without asking for access to the negatives.<\/span>\u00a0\u201c<\/span>I said, \u2018What do you mean?\u2019 And he said, \u2018Well, I don’t have them. That was stuff I shot for <\/span>Life <\/span><\/i>magazine and they own all of it.\u201d Disillusioned, yet inspired, Alexander immediately went out and bought a book on photography and the law given \u201cI had already pledged myself to documenting us for us. And I thought, \u2018Well, so much for being a great photojournalist like my mentor, because I want to<\/span> keep<\/span><\/i> my negatives.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing he always stresses is to tell your own story and document everything you do,\u201d says Nailon, invoking Alexander\u2019s remarkable and lengthy legacy of recording history and African American culture.<\/span>\u00a0\u201c<\/span>So I know that actually owning the rights and the intellectual property to your work has been something that is just incredibly important to him.<\/span> And making sure that ownership stays within our community.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Nailon further acknowledges Alexander\u2019s 60-year commitment to representing and preserving \u201call<\/span> facets of Black life,\u201d and to \u201ceducating ourselves about ourselves.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI know it was extremely important for Jim to chronicle Black life, show it in a beautiful light, show it for what it is.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
 (Interested in photography, click here<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n
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