Fortunately for us, Island photographer Leo Frame’s keen artistic eye captured Black culture during an exciting and sometimes volatile period in American history in his newest exhibit at the Oak Bluffs library, through July 27.
Frame’s candid 35mm black-and-white portraits convey the soul of significant people of the era, who will be new to some and familiar to others: “I hope to feature individuals at the cutting edge of civil rights and Black empowerment across America.”
With a photojournalistic approach, Frame’s images speak volumes in a single instant. His candid, often extreme close-ups create an immediacy to the work. Much of it was taken at Fisk University, during grad school at the University of Massachusetts, Amhurst, and his years living in Atlanta.
“Bearing Witness to Black Consciousness 1968-80: The Hidden Archive of Photographer Leo Frame” begins with an image of Maynard Jackson, the first Black mayor of Atlanta, and instrumental in starting an era of strong Black businesses. Surrounded by union workers protesting wages, Maynard assures them of his support.
While in Atlanta, Frame got to know Jackson by working as his advance person and photographer. He worked on several political campaigns, was treasurer of the Young Democrats of Georgia, and was president of the Citywide League of Neighborhoods. Frame also started the on-campus Third World Bookstore, which became a community student hub filled with books and newspapers that he drove down from Harlem. “I was just being myself,” he recalls. “I had and still have a philosophy of giving back to the community.”
In another arresting piece, Frame, just inches away from the front line, catches Ralph Abernathy, Jesse Jackson, and others, arms linked on a protest march against Rich’s Department Store’s racist policies excluding Blacks from the workforce as well as barring them from their cafeterias. With everyone simultaneously glancing to the right, they seem to be looking in our direction on the sideline.
The nearby portrait of Abernathy, in a quintessentially 1970s-patterned suit, catches him joyously laughing, making the civil rights icon immensely human.
As dapper but much more serious is Congressman John Lewis. Shooting half his face in shadow, Frame imbues the striking portrait with impressive stature befitting the co-founder and chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and seminal civil rights leader who helped organize the Freedom Rides, the 1963 March on Washington, and the Selma to Montgomery Marches.
In a nearby image, shot from below, Huey Newton looks strident with a fierce expression, with his outspoken revolutionary beliefs as founder and leader of the Black Panther Party. “They had just released him from prison, and he went on tour. He spoke about the proletariat and the masses, and ‘we’re going to rise up.’ It was the most boring speech I’d ever been to. He talked too long,” Frame admits.
Among the show’s many treasures is a photograph of Martin Luther King Sr., and Coretta Scott King at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Referring to Martin Luther King Sr., Frame believes, “The son didn’t come out of nowhere. This man forged him to a great extent. Martin Luther King Jr. used to come up to Massachusetts and work the tobacco farms when he was a student. It was probably because ‘Daddy King’ made opportunities that most Black kids never would have had.”
The other half of the exhibit highlights the who’s who of the Black musicians of the era, including Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Stevie Wonder, all caught in intense performance moments. Seen in profile, Roberta Flack throws her head back in song. You can almost hear the music as Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson sing, mics held high, looking lovingly into one another’s countenances.
Frame captures Minnie Riperton in the throes of a song. Placing her in the far-right corner of the photograph, silhouetted by a pitch-black background, Riperton stretches out her right arm across to the picture’s far edge, creating an arresting composition.
Nestled below is a rare candid image of Riperton speaking with her husband, Richard Rudolph, backstage at Agora Ballroom in Atlanta, with her daughter Maya clinging to her skirt. The toddler looks straight into our eyes, adding poignancy to the fact that she would lose her mother just two years later. Amy K. Nelson, programming coordinator at the Oak Bluffs library, says about the photograph, “It feels emblematic of Leo being in these spaces in this era, and being able to capture the uniqueness of so many of these folks’ lives.”
Closing the show is an amazing image of Sylvester Stone, affectionately titled “Sly, Sly,” where, with hat tilted just so, he peeks out right at us with the slyest of smiles.
Speaking of his art, Frame says, “I created a body of work over the years which I hope to share with a younger generation, sharing the beauty and love of a real and beautiful people … As a Black photographer, I have reflected my environment and love for my community in these images … Seeing a powerful photograph can impact a person’s awareness, philosophy, and opinions. It opens doors, releasing the spirit, which can lay dormant until seen with the mind’s eye.”
“Bearing Witness to Black Consciousness 1968-80: The Hidden Archive of Photographer Leo Frame” runs through July 27. The reception on Saturday, July 13, from 2 to 4 pm will include books and art that decorated Frame’s Third World Bookstore, small photographs from his professional and personal collection, and a slideshow, including color photographs from the period.