Roland Charles facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Roland Charles
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| Born | August 31, 1938 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
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| Died | May 26, 2000 (aged 61) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
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| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Photography |
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Notable work
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The Shine Man (1968), Railroad Tracks (1974), Rosa Parks in Los Angeles (1983), Brixton Station, London (1993) |
| Spouse(s) | deBorah Charles |
Roland Charles (born August 31, 1938 – died May 26, 2000) was an African-American photographer and art gallery owner. He is best known for helping to start The Black Photographers of California. He also co-founded the Black Gallery in Los Angeles. This gallery was one of the first places created by and for Black photographers.
Contents
Early Life and Photography Journey
Roland Charles was born in Louisiana in 1938. As a child, he lived in a community called Bobtown until he finished high school. After serving in the Air Force, he moved to California in the early 1960s. There, he worked in the aerospace industry, which builds airplanes and spacecraft.
In 1971, a friend gave him a camera. This gift changed his life! He soon became a full-time freelance photographer. He took pictures for music album covers and even worked with a famous reporter named Rona Barrett.
Capturing Life Through His Lens
Roland Charles loved photography and wanted to show the real lives of Black people. In November 1983, he put together a big photo show. It was at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles. The show was called The Tradition Continues: California Black Photographers. It featured many talented photographers, both new and experienced.
Charles admired how Black photographers used their skills. They created both useful photos, like those for newspapers, and beautiful art photos. He especially liked the work of Harry Adams, a newspaper photographer. Charles once said about a photo of his daughter dancing, "when I think of this photograph, I think of poetry in motion." This shows how much he loved the art of photography.
A Day in the Life of Black Los Angeles
In 1988, Roland Charles and Thomas L. Wright organized another important show. It was called A Day in the Life of Black Los Angeles. This exhibit displayed 120 photos taken by Black photographers on Martin Luther King Jr. Day that year.
The show was a big success! Charles then started a book project with the same name. He wanted the book to "fill the void in the projection of black culture." This meant he wanted to show a complete and true picture of Black culture.
In 1992, Charles created an exhibit to go with the book. It was called Life in a Day of Black Los Angeles: The Way We See It. The photos aimed to show Black life in all its different forms. They wanted to correct how Black culture was often shown unfairly in the media. The pictures came from many areas across Los Angeles.
As Charles was finishing the book, the Los Angeles Riots happened. The project was changed to include many photos from this important event. Charles said that the riots became an "epilogue" or a final chapter for the book. After the riots, Charles continued to photograph and curate exhibits about the event.
Challenging Stereotypes
Roland Charles was dedicated to showing Black life fairly. He took part in a discussion about a 1995 art show called "Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art." Charles and other Black artists felt the show didn't fully represent Black men.
They created their own counter-exhibits. Charles hoped his photos would help people see Black men as real people. He wanted to get rid of old, harmful stereotypes. He once said, "Since Birth of a Nation, we’ve had an image problem."
The Black Gallery: A Home for Photographers
The success of his early shows led Charles to help create the Black Photographers of California. This group was a non-profit organization for Black photographers. With this group's support, Charles and co-founders Calvin Hicks, Donald Bernard, and Gil Garner opened the Black Gallery.
The gallery was located in Santa Barbara Plaza, which is now Marlton Square. It received money from grants and donations. The Black Gallery helped new and experienced Black photographers show their work. Charles believed that many images of Los Angeles didn't truly represent the community. Hicks stated that the Black Gallery was "the first gallery in the black community dedicated to black photography."
The Black Gallery was a special place for photographers. It offered workshops and a place to share photos. It was also a meeting spot and coffee house for other events. Charles and his co-founders were part of a growing group of Black gallery owners in Los Angeles. These galleries helped create a lively art scene in the 1970s and 1980s.
Charles and the other founders wanted to show a wide range of Black creativity. They focused on showing Black life in America in a detailed way. They wanted to push back against stereotypes. Charles remembered, "Growing up in New Orleans, the only images of blacks that I saw were sharecroppers. I didn't know we had a history and culture above and beyond that.”
In the 1990s, the Black Gallery faced some challenges, including vandalism. This led Charles to start community programs and school projects. He wanted to show everyone how important art was to the community.
The Black Gallery closed in 1998. Its collection of photos and documents was given to the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center. This center is at California State University, Northridge, where they are kept safe.
His Work on Display
Roland Charles's photographs were shown in many art exhibits. These shows took place in Los Angeles and other parts of the country. Some notable exhibitions included:
- Jazz Photography: M. Hanks Gallery Celebrates Black History Month (1991)
- “What Happened” in L.A.: Civil Disturbance: L.A. 1992 (1992)
- Los Angeles: Then and Now (1994)
- African American Representation of Masculinity (1995), which was a response to another exhibit.
- Black Photographers of Los Angeles (1998), a discussion and slideshow at the Getty Center.
- Identity & Affirmation: Post-War African-American Photography (2011), a show at California State University Northridge.
Roland Charles also helped organize many exhibitions as a curator. Some of these were:
- A Day in the Life of Black Los Angeles (1988), which he co-curated.
- Life in a Day of Black L.A. (1992), a traveling exhibit that went nationwide.
- Collaborations (1995), a joint exhibit of Black and Korean-American artists after the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.
- Bobtown: The Legacy of Robert Celestin (1995), a show about his great-grandfather's community in Louisiana.
Where His Work Is Kept
Roland Charles’s photographs are part of important art collections. You can find his work at the California African American Museum, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and The Getty Center for the History of Arts and The Humanities.
The full collection of the Black Photographers of California, which includes Charles's work, is kept at the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center at California State University, Northridge. This center also holds interviews that Charles did with other Black photographers.
His Legacy
Roland Charles passed away on May 26, 2000, due to complications from a heart attack. His wife, deBorah Charles, has continued to share his work. She has organized several exhibits of his photographs and published a book featuring his amazing pictures.
