Races, Negroes: United States. Virginia. Hampton. Hampton Normal and Industrial School: Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Va.: The Summer School. 1899 - 1900

Curator: This photograph, taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston, is titled Races, Negroes: United States. Virginia. Hampton. Hampton Normal and Industrial School: Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Va.: The Summer School. Editor: The image is a study in contrasts, a formal group portrait, yet staged in an informal outdoor setting. The composition itself, the arrangement of figures, is so striking. Curator: Absolutely. Johnston's strategic placement emphasizes hierarchy, those in the front plane possessing power, while the students are neatly arranged behind them. What is visually being suggested? Editor: Precisely. One ponders how Johnston's photographs promoted Hampton's mission of vocational training and racial uplift, whilst simultaneously reinforcing existing power structures. Curator: And consider how the materiality, the stark blacks and whites, reinforces the racial binary inherent within its historical period. Editor: Yes, it’s unsettling, but also a testament to the complexities of representation and the role of photography in shaping social narratives.