Frederick Douglass, photography, and the image of dignity

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“He wrote essays on the photograph and its majesty, posed for hundreds of different portraits, many of them endlessly copied and distributed around the United States. He was a theorist of the technology and a student of its social impact, one of the first to consider the fixed image as a public relations instrument. Indeed, the determined abolitionist believed fervently that he could represent the dignity of his race, inspiring others, and expanding the visual vocabulary of mass culture. ”

via The New Republic

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Additional Essays

• Hyperallergic: “Why Frederick Douglass Was the Most Photographed 19th-Century American“

• WBUR: “Frederick Douglass Used Photographs To Force The Nation To Begin Addressing Racism”

• Arc Digital: “From Frederick Douglass to 2020”

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