Description
Hugh Mangum was a young portrait photographer working in the Jim Crow South between the 1890s and early 1920s, known for welcoming Black and white clients into his studio with unusual openness for the era. He died young and unexpectedly in 1922, leaving behind hundreds of glass plate negatives stored in a family barn. Decades later, in 1968, the barn was slated for demolition, and the long‑forgotten negatives were discovered inside. The rescued plates were preserved and digitized, revealing images of people hidden for half a century. The man in the photograph, from whom this oil painting is based, likely never received his photograph and likely did not know why. Mr. Magnum's negatives are among the few sources of images of Black Americans in the early Jim Crow Era. Follower-Submitted Haiku on this piece. Buttoned dreams and time; A stranger’s lens holds his gaze; Memory stands still. by@melissa.pnw444. He wears freedom like; liberated redemption; strength dressed in justice. by @strongandgracefulpoetry
