African American Photographers

Film : Martha's Vineyard African-American Film Festival

"It's been a crazy ride," says Martha's Vineyard African-American Film Festival (MVAAFF) co-director Stephanie Rance, the filmmaker who founded the festival with her husband and fellow filmmaker Floyd Rance III of Run and Shoot Filmworks.

MVAAFF enters its ninth year on the Vineyard when it opens Tuesday, Aug. 9. The Festival runs for five days, ending on Saturday, Aug. 13.

Headliners this year include syndicated radio personality and author Michael Baisden, who will screen his new documentary, "Do Women Know What They Want?" Mr. Baisden has been on the air in New York since 2003, and his talk show was syndicated not long afterward.

"My goal," says Mr. Baisden, "is to promote dialogue between men and women about topics that impact all of our relationships, regardless if you are married or single, such as sexual compatibility, the influence of girlfriends, interracial dating, and, of course, the most popular issues of them all, infidelity and dishonesty."

An estimated 60 films will play at MVAAFF, whose headquarters will be at Vineyard Haven's Mansion House, with some film screenings at the Katharine Cornell Theatre. Ms. Rance said that one of the highlights of this year's festival is a workshop for filmmakers on the ins and outs of filmmaking.

This workshop is sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild offshoot, SAG-Indie. A number of the actors showcased at MVAAFF in past years have gone on to find work in commercials, according to Ms. Rance.

One MVAAFF sponsor, CNN, will screen "Pictures Don't Lie," a documentary about the life of the late civil rights photographer Ernest Withers, one of the most important and controversial photographers of the civil rights movement. At the same time Mr. Withers was photographing Martin Luther King and key moments in the civil rights movement, he was also serving as an informant for the FBI.

Now in their third year of MVAAFF sponsorship, advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi will offer a workshop entitled This Is How We Do It. They will also once again offer the Nothing Is Impossible Producer's Award for a film developed by an emerging artist of color.

New this year is Saatchi & Saatchi's Artist-in-Residence program. A MVAAFF filmmaker chosen by the agency will spend three to six months in its production/creative departments, followed by an equal amount of time in a Los Angeles-based production house. Other MVAAFF sponsors this year include Macy's Department Stores, Lacoste, MV Bank, and the film equipment rental company Arri-CSC.

Celebrating Black America's Resilient Love Through Photos - COLORLINES

Of African American artists who have been documenting the African diaspora for the last forty years through photography. Many of the photos document the daily life of black America and it’s an extraordinary look into a slice of American history.

Kamoinge was formed in 1963 to address the under-representation of black photographers in the art world. It was founded by notable African American photographers Louis Draper, Ray Francis, Herbert Randall and Albert Fennar, with Roy DeCarava serving as its first director. The word Kamoinge comes from the Kikuyu language of Kenya and means a group of people acting together.

Photos over the years range from the Civil Rights Movement and the Harlem Renaissance to artistic portraits shot inside refugee camps in Africa, and vibrant shots of musicians and athletes. It’ll be exciting to see the work of its current 24 members continue well into the 21st century.

Enterprising images, the Goodridge brothers, African American photographers, 1847-1922

Reflections in Black, A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present

Focal encyclopedia of photography, digital imaging, theory and applications, history, and science

The concise Focal encyclopedia of photography, from the first photo on paper to the digital revolution

The African American encyclopedia