Altanta's First Black Photographer

Thomas E Askew (circa 1848 - d.1914), Atlanta’s first African American photographer. Began his photography career in the 1880s at Motes Studio downtown Atlanta. He later operated his own studio from home on Summit Avenue. Three years after his death, the Great Fire of 1917 destroyed all of his photographic equipment and negatives. A number of his prints remain in private collections. He's buried in Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Georgia Negro Exhibit marked a major turning point in the use of photography by African Americans to articulate a self-defined image of Who We Are. Its ostensible purpose was to present the progress of African Americans from the end of slavery to the dawn of the new century. But in the portraits prepared by Askew, the Georgia Negro Exhibit provided a resounding declaration of the self-worth, self-esteem and self determination of a people in spite of the obstacles thrown in their path. It was at the Paris Exhibition, by far the largest international exhibition of its time, attracting nearly 50 million visitors, in a caption for one of the displays, that WEB DuBois declared: “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.”

Sources: ddfr.tv; LOC