JAMES LATIMER ALLEN

Allen (1907-1977) grew up in New York City at a time when Harlem was the center of a "renaissance" of black culture. At the age of 16, while still in high school, he began an apprenticeship in photography at a white-owned company that encouraged talented young African Americans. In 1927, Allen submitted his work for exhibition, resulting in his association with the Harmon Foundation and earning him recognition among Harlem's cultural leaders. During the Depression, Allen photographed exhibition installations and individual artworks for the Harmon Foundation, and his portraits of artists at work in the Harlem Community Art Center offer a record of the artistic life of Harlem before World War II. His professional career as a portrait photographer ended with his enlistment in the army, where he served with the Office of Strategic Services. For the rest of his life, Allen lived in Washington, D. C., working for the government and engaging only in amateur photography.

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J.P. (JAMES PRESLEY) BALL

Ball (1825-1905) was born free in Virginia and opened a one-room photographer’s studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1845. Two years later he became a traveling daguerreotypist, and in 1849 he hired his brother Thomas to operate the Cincinnati business. Ball published a pamphlet in 1855 addressing the horrors of slavery, and he opened an exhibition of enslaved people's experience. In May 1860 the Ball and Thomas Photographic Art Gallery is destroyed by tornado, but rebuilt. After the Civil War, Ball moved to Minneapolis, where he opened his own studio. In 1887 he became the official photographer of the 25th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation held in Minneapolis. He kept moving further west, first to Helena, Montana, then at the turn of the century to Seattle, where he opened a studio under the name of Globe Photo Studio.

A. P. BEDOU

Bedou (1882-1966) was once the private photographer to Booker T. Washington and official photographer for Tuskeegee University. His photographic studio was located at South Rampart and Common Streets in 1942. A New Orleans native who rose to fame through his portraits of jazz musicians, Bedou’s established his studio in that city in 1942.

GEORGE O. BROWN

Brown (c.1850-1910) operated a portrait studio in Richmond, Virginia, in the 1870s through the very early twentieth century. His photographs documented black life in Richmond and surrounding area. In 1907, Brown received the silver medal for his photographs at the Jamestown Tercentennial. The Brown family studio, operated by his son and daughter after his death, was in business until 1977.