*On this date in 1963, we celebrate the Kamoinge Workshop. Kamoinge, Inc. was founded as a collective of Black photographers dedicated to achieving artistic equality and empowerment.
It is a forum where members view, nurture, critique, and challenge each other’s work in an honest and understanding atmosphere. In 1963, two groups of African American photographers held a joint meeting. Group 35 included James Ray Francis, Louis Draper, Herman Howard, Earl James, and Calvin Mercer. The other group included Herb Randall, Albert Fennar, Shawn Walker, and James Mannas. Out of this meeting came the Kamoinge Workshop. The name derives from the Gikuyu language of Kenya and means a group of people acting together.’
Photographers Roy DeCarava, Larry Stewart, and Melvin Mills were essential catalysts for the group’s early development, with DeCarava, an intelligent and artistic innovator, voted the first director of Kamoinge. In 1965, the group opened the Kamoinge Gallery in a brownstone building on West 137th Street. The activities in the new space included numerous group exhibitions, rigorous yet constructive critiques of photographs and portfolios, and frequent visits from guest speakers. Early guests included Peter Magune, a photojournalist from South Africa; John Szarkowski, Director of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art; Langston Hughes, playwright and Poet Laureate of Harlem; Henri Cartier-Bresson, a French photojournalist; and R.E. Martinez, publisher of Camera, a Swiss photo magazine.
Since the founding of Kamoinge, its members have participated in hundreds of individual and group exhibitions in major national and international art institutions, too numerous to name. Kamoinge members have published numerous photographic books and portfolios, all of which are concerned with the truth, insight, and integrity of the subject and the artistic process. Based in New York City, Kamoinge has met continuously since 1963 under the leadership of creative and active directors, including Anthony Barboza, Roy DeCarava, Louis Draper, and Beuford Smith. Individually, the members lecture, conduct seminars, teach at universities, and work in fine art photography, commercial photography, motion pictures, and video production.
