OBAMA: THE HISTORIC CAMPAIGN & VICTORY IN PHOTOS

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture presents Obama: The Historic Campaign & Victory in Photos, an exhibition of more than 100 photographs taken by professionals as well as enthusiastic supporters that document and celebrate the historic campaign mounted by Barack Obama to be elected President of the United States of America. The photographic journey begins seven months before Obama announces that he will run for president and ends with his victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park on November 4, 2008. The images capture the vitality of the campaign along with the passion and commitment of voters who rallied to Obama’s theme, “Yes We Can!” The exhibition is curated by Deborah Willis and Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe.

“Photography played a significant role in making Barack Obama both an icon and a subject of curiosity,” co-curator Deborah Willis explains. “This unique collection of photographs considers the public and private moments of his campaign. The exhibition, on view in the Latimer/Edison Gallery, includes photographs shot by professional photojournalists and portrait photographers as well as by individuals and students who used their cell phones and video and digital cameras to preserve his image.” The photographs, grouped thematically, range from images of quiet family moments to the candidate speaking in front of extraordinarily large crowds to very intimate talks with small groups of voters. They move on to images of how Obama is perceived as an iconic figure and to those displaying an exploration of hope in popular and material culture.

“A photograph at once can be both personal and public,” says co-curator Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe. “The photographer is creating a visual proof of a specific moment. However, that proof disseminated to the public is interpretable. Therefore the meaning of an image is not limited by what the photographer intends. Obama: The Historic Campaign & Victory in Photos uses images related to Obama’s campaign to bring to the fore the ideas of image as inspiration for thoughts and how, in our camera-centric culture, specific images can create a visual collective consciousness.”

In researching thousands of images, the curators came across many personal stories. One in particular was from South Carolina, of Elise Jones Martin and her sister Loretta Green. Mrs. Martin’s son shared her story in hopes that it would be included alongside her photograph. “For more than 30 years she has served as Poll Manager for the City of Columbia, Precinct 8. She had thought of retiring from that job at the end of 2007. However, when she heard Obama was running she decided to stay on through the primary. On the day of the primary, while working at her post of poll manager, Obama came by the polling place to visit. A friend came over, got Mother and brought her where Obama was campaigning. As the picture was taken, she is telling Obama that she had originally planned to stop working the polls that year, but she said, ‘I am a 93-year-old woman working the polls because you are running. Never give up because I know you can win.’”

Among the photographers showcased in the exhibition are David Burnett, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Benjamin Norman, Bob Gore, Dawoud Bey, Terrence Jennings, Jessica Ingram, Christopher Anderson/Magnum Photos, Thomas Dworzak/Magnum Photos, Bruce Gilden/Magnum Photos, and Eli Reed/Magnum Photos.

About the Curators

A photo historian, curator, and photographer, Deborah Willis is chair and professor of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Photography and Imaging. She is the co-author of the book Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs. A Guggenheim, Fletcher, and MacArthur fellow, she lives in New York City.

Photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe has had frequent group and solo photographic exhibitions of her work at museums and galleries around the world—including the Leica Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York; the Smithsonian and National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.; Galerie Herve Odermat in Paris; and the Excellsior in Florence. Moutoussamy-Ashe's work has been featured in Life, the New York Times, and People. Her books include Daufuskie Island and Viewfinders: Black Women Photographers. She lives in New York City.

Related Exhibition

African Americans and American Politics

On view now through April 19, 2009 at the Schomburg Center is the popular window display exhibition African Americans and American Politics. Barack Obama stands on the shoulders of those African Americans who struggled within and outside of the Democratic and Republican parties to advance the cause of freedom, justice, and human dignity for black people as well as all of humankind. African Americans and American Politics is a survey of the African American struggle for freedom and human dignity, fighting to make America and American democracy real for all of its citizens over the last 200+ years.

About the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a research unit of The New York Public Library, is generally recognized as one of the leading institutions of its kind in the world. A cultural center as well as a repository, this Harlem-based modern research library also sponsors a wide array of interpretive programs, including exhibitions, scholarly and public forums, and cultural performances. For over eighty years the Schomburg Center has collected, preserved, and provided access to materials documenting black life, and promoted the study and interpretation of black history and culture.