Races, Negroes: United States. Alabama. Tuskegee. Tuskegee Institute: Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama: View of grounds. 1902

Curator: Frances Benjamin Johnston's photograph, titled "Races, Negroes: United States. Alabama. Tuskegee. Tuskegee Institute: Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama: View of grounds," presents a sweeping vista of the Tuskegee Institute. Editor: It evokes a sense of industrious, almost utopian, aspiration, doesn't it? All those figures working together. Curator: Indeed. Johnston, as a photographer, often focused on documenting institutions. Here, the image underscores the role of the Tuskegee Institute in shaping African American lives through vocational training. Editor: And that title, "Races, Negroes," is incredibly telling. It situates the work within the racial politics of the time, doesn't it? Highlighting how race was not just an identity, but a social and political construct. Curator: Precisely. The photograph, now housed at Harvard, exists as a historical document and prompts discussions about race, education, and representation. Editor: It makes you think about the power dynamics inherent in the act of documenting marginalized communities, and whose story is truly being told.