Object Details
Artist
Shawn Walker
Date
1963
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 6 5/8 × 4 1/2 inches (16.8 × 11.4 cm)
Sheet: 13 7/8 × 10 15/16 inches (35.2 × 27.8 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired through the Warner L. Overton, Class of 1922, Endowment
Object
Number
2022.009
Shawn Walker was one of the original members of the Kamoinge Workshop, a collective of Black art pho(…)
Shawn Walker was one of the original members of the Kamoinge Workshop, a collective of Black art photographers formed in New York City in 1963. (Ming Smith, whose work is also represented in this gallery, was also part of the group.) He has lived in Harlem all his life. Walker’s work is unusual within the Johnson’s significant collection of New York City street photography in that it expresses a personal vision rooted in community knowledge and activist politics.
This striking portrait dates from early in Walker’s career. He has often photographed children, but this image is of a rare gravitas. The close crop draws the viewer’s attention immediately to the face and particularly the eyes of this serious looking child. Other details surface later: the knitted winter hood and layers of clothing; the coat with its escaping threads. These suggest the vulnerability of this young Harlem resident, despite his self-possessed expression.
—Kate Addleman-Frankel, the Gary and Ellen Davis Curator of Photography
