Essay
Who is the man behind the camera?
Addison Scurlock was a man of great talent and extraordinary vision. He saw the world as a boundless opportunity to those people that were willing to go out and fight for their dream. He came from a family of self-made men with his father being a figure in politics and law in the D.C. area. Addison Scurlock had a passion for photography and once he gradated high school he decided to pursue a career in it. He took an apprenticeship at a local white-owned D.C. studio where he received the guidance he needed in order to be a proper photographer and film developer and editor. With the skills he learned at the Moses Rice Studio he soon became the main photographer of Howard University where he captured maybe important moments with his camera. From the early 1900s to his death, Addison Scurlock, was the official photographer for Howard University and the surrounding area. In 1911 Scurlock opened up his very own photographer studio where he was able to expand his career to being more that just a university photographer. With his studio he took the city by storm and let everyone see what Washington, D.C. looked like from his point of view. Once his two sons were old enough they joined the family business and together they all captured captivating influential moments that happened in the black community of D.C. and also other southern cities. Together they were all able to take photographs of almost every important event that D.C. saw for more than half a century.
Why is he important?
Addison Scurlock gave a face to the rising black middle class of Washington, D.C. He captured pivotal moments that would soon change the way that African Americans were viewed. Washington D.C. was a very segregated city in the early 1900s. It would have been easy for certain people of the white community to just pretend the black areas of town just didn’t exist, but with the rising fame of Addison Scurlock and his work this ability to ignore the black community soon got harder. Addison Scurlock was there every step of the way when it came to the black movement that took place in Washington and he was sure to catch it on film. Addison Scurlock let the voices of theses inspirational men and woman be heard. Without the circulation of Scurlock’s portraits and other pictures the roots of the black community wouldn’t have been able to spread past the city limits that they were socially restricted to.
What the sources say about Addison Scurlock
From the sources I found they all made Addison Scurlock look like a great man. I was able to find newspaper articles that were written back in the early 1900s for black owned newspapers and that helped give me some great insight on how Addison Scurlock was seen by his community. An article posted in the Washington Bee in 1911 announced the grand opening of Addison Scurlock very first studio and how we would be away on a business trip but would shortly return home to fill his studio. Little articles like that show the impact Scurlock had on his community; it demonstrates how he was a household name before he was even a studio owner. After his opening of his studio Scurlock’s fame soon increased from being a community figure to being recognized nation wide. A newspaper centered out of Indianapolis, Indian mentions Scurlock in a news/opinion section dedicated to racial progress in the business world. The news of what Scurlock was dong in the Nation’s capital spread and with it came great pride for what he was doing with the black community located in Washington, D.C. Later on in an article written in 1983 from a newspaper in Chicago it announced a showcasing of important black artisans and their works, and among them was Addison Scurlock. The purpose of this traveling show was to showcase the achievements of these black photographers and the "function of their art, and their place in it."
How I feel about Addison Scurlock
Addison Scurlock was a man before his time. In a world that is currently full of social media sites that are dedicated to sharing and looking at photos just think of what he could have become if only he these types of medias existed back then. I actually found the idea for my project by looking at the history section on Pinterest. I kept seeing all these great old timey photos that were just mesmerizing and I noticed a trend; they all had “Scurlock Studio” written in the caption or they were linked to it. I decided to take a quick Google search of this “Surlock Studio” and what I found was amazing. I never heard of Addison Scurlock before but there was something about his photos that captured my attention. There was a way he captured the dark skin tones and the elegant features of these people that I had never before seen in an old photo. He made these people seem as if they were glowing and made you what to know who they were and why they were so illuminating. After seeing these photos it helped me better understand the impact he must have had during his lifetime. Imagine you were a white upper-middle class person looking at a picture of an African American with just as much social status as you looking as elegant as Scurlock made his subjects look, how would you feel? You have to pretend you live in a time of strict racial stereotypes and boundaries. Addison Scurlock was able to break these social boundaries just by the pure craftsmanship of his photos. He gave a face of those that needed to be seen the most and gave a reason as to why they should be seen as equals within the community of Washington, D.C.