w/nw Environmental Portraits

I spent time from 2006 to 2010 working on a project to document the people of South Apopka in Florida, a historical Negro community remaining from the days of racial segregation. I deemed the community of historical cultural significance although few residents understood. My approach was an extended series of environmental portraits with brief explanatory notes. It was a rewarding experience for me as a white middle upper class putting myself into a small lower class almost totally Negro community. But I met great people who became long term friends.

The tangible result was a series of prints that have been exhibited in Winter Park, FL, The Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the Univ. of Mississippi, a gallery in Havana, Cuba, and others. But my favorite was when I hung all the framed prints on the backstop of the softball field in South Apopka on the 4th of July when they were having a community picnic.

This series has continued to evolve into others including my religion series and my Cuban work which is a direct extension just geographically different.

The late Mr. Hessie McAllip who spent his life as an agricultural worker
McCallip-McCallip.jpg

The late Ms. Johnson whose house once faced the RR tracks, now a recreational bike trail. The years were unkind to her mental facilities but she sat outside and waved at the bicyclists who pedaled by.
Ms-Johnson.jpg

The late Mr. Arthur Lewis. Mr. Lewis rented a room in a relocated WWII officers house on a street with 18 identical houses. We visited frequently until he passed.
old-man-w-walker-ALT-kid-in.jpg

Sharika in her family's wig shop. Unfortunately, it went out of business after 3 months.
Shakari-in-doorway-of-JAS.jpg

The late Mr. Curtis Robinson. You have seen him before here. This is how I found him sitting on his porch one Sunday after church.
Curtis Robinson.jpg
 
Bob Michaels said:
I spent time from 2006 to 2010 working on a project to document the people of South Apopka in Florida, a historical Negro community remaining from the days of racial segregation. I deemed the community of historical cultural significance although few residents understood. My approach was an extended series of environmental portraits with brief explanatory notes. It was a rewarding experience for me as a white middle upper class putting myself into a small lower class almost totally Negro community. But I met great people who became long term friends.

The tangible result was a series of prints that have been exhibited in Winter Park, FL, The Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the Univ. of Mississippi, a gallery in Havana, Cuba, and others. But my favorite was when I hung all the framed prints on the backstop of the softball field in South Apopka on the 4th of July when they were having a community picnic.

This series has continued to evolve into others including my religion series and my Cuban work which is a direct extension just geographically different.

The late Mr. Hessie McAllip who spent his life as an agricultural worker
View attachment 4827275

The late Ms. Johnson whose house once faced the RR tracks, now a recreational bike trail. The years were unkind to her mental facilities but she sat outside and waved at the bicyclists who pedaled by.
View attachment 4827276

The late Mr. Arthur Lewis. Mr. Lewis rented a room in a relocated WWII officers house on a street with 18 identical houses. We visited frequently until he passed.
View attachment 4827277

Sharika in her family's wig shop. Unfortunately, it went out of business after 3 months.
View attachment 4827278

The late Mr. Curtis Robinson. You have seen him before here. This is how I found him sitting on his porch one Sunday after church.
View attachment 4827279
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These are fantastic. I am sure I have told you before that the photo of Mr Robinson was part of the reason I came back to RFF after a hiatus in what now seems like the dim past. Engaging again made sense when I saw the sort of work I like.

I do hope the small child in the photo of Mr Lewis learned to hold a living animal more kindly and appropriately.
 
Freakscene said:
These are fantastic. I am sure I have told you before that the photo of Mr Robinson was part of the reason I came back to RFF after a hiatus in what now seems like the dim past.
Click to expand...

Thanks. That photo of Mr. Robinson was unique in that it was one of those rare occasions I spotted something from the car and not on foot. I was slowly cruising through his neighborhood when I spotted him. Hard to miss with him wearing his white cap, white shirt, white pants, white socks, and white shoes. I jumped out of my car, camera in hand, and began giving my explanation who I was and what I was doing. And, I began to photograph. Later, he told me that I had photographed him several years earlier when he was dressed in a new suit on Easter morning.

The later years were not kind to Mr. Robinson as he had both legs amputated about the knee because of his diabetes. But, I would occasionally stop to chat until his demise. I had given him a 16x20 framed copy of this print which hung of the fireplace mantle of his family home right along side one of President Obama. And, his memory still lives here as my avatar.
 
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