Inspired by Deborah Willis's book, Reflections in Black, THROUGH A LENS DARKLY casts a broad net that begins with filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris's family album. It considers the difference between black photographers who use the camera to define themselves, their people, and their culture and some white photographers who, historically, have demeaned African-Americans through racist imagery.

The film is a cornucopia of Americana that reveals deeply disturbing truths about the history of race relations while expressing joyous, life-affirming sentiments about the ability of artists and amateurs alike to assert their identity through the photographic lens.

A discussion will follow moderated by Professor Makeda Best.

‍Makeda Best is a historian of photography and an Assistant Professor of Visual Studies at the California College of the Arts. She earned her PhD from Harvard University; she also studied studio photography at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, where she earned an MFA.

Her forthcoming book is on the Civil War-era photographer Alexander Gardner and she is co-editor of the forthcoming anthology titled Conflict, Protest, and Identity in American Art; additional essays will appear in Critical Military Studies and the Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts. She is featured in Oregon Public Radio and Annenberg Learner’s Essential Lens – Analyzing Photographs Across the Curriculum (2015).

Free Admission. Seating is limited. RSVP here.

‍This program is presented in conjunction with Third Thursdays in Yerba Buena. More information here.