CINCINNATI – The history and science of photography are on display this Saturday at Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC) as part of FotoFocus’s 2022 Biennial program week. CMC’s Witnessing History displays rarely seen photographs from 19th-century Black photographers, original newsreels from the 1930s and 1940s and offers an opportunity to create your own photograph using infrared photography. All activities are included with Museum Admission on Saturday, October 8.
Arabeth Balasko, CMC’s curator of Photographs, Prints and Media, will share a collection of recently discovered and conserved images of African American families from 1863 to 1900. The photos include tintypes, carte de visites and cabinet cards, including some taken by 19th-century photographers John Presley Ball and Alexander S. Thomas. Fittingly, the display will be arranged outside the Ball & Thomas Daguerrean & Photographic Studio on the Public Landing of the Cincinnati History Museum.
Ball was a celebrated African American photographer in the mid-1800s, opening his first studio in 1845 in Cincinnati. After working briefly as a traveling photographer, he opened a daguerreotype gallery in downtown Cincinnati which became one of the most well know galleries in the country. In the 1850s, he hired Alexander S. Thomas to work with him, becoming a full business partner in 1857. Independently, they were two of the most sought-after photographers in the city. Ball also worked with another prominent African American in the studio, artist Robert S. Duncanson, who retouched some of Ball’s portraits and colored photographic prints.
CMC is also activating its historic Scripps Howard Newsreel Theater. Through the month of October, you can experience newsreels from the 1930s and 1940s just as passengers in Union Terminal would have: in snappy black-and-white footage projected onto a screen from the comfort of red-upholstered chairs. The selection of newsreels from CMC’s collections includes news about World War II, the Cincinnati Reds, Union Terminal and more.
Photography also looks to the future. In CMC’s History in the Making Classroom, you can try infrared photography as you create a still life photo or self-portrait that you can take home. The History in the Making Classroom is located in the Cincinnati History Museum. The infrared photography activity is included with admission and will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
CMC’s Witnessing History displays are part of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial: World Record. Now in its sixth iteration, the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial activates over 100 projects at participating venues across Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Dayton and Columbus, and features more than 600 artists, curators and participants – the largest of its kind in America. The World Record theme considers photography’s extensive record of life on Earth, humankind’s impact on the natural world and the choices we now face as a global community.
For more information, visit www.cincymuseum.org
