Black Image Center Preserves Memories For Black Families
On Oct. 22 through 24, the Black Image Center, a Los Angeles organization created by a group of young photographers, hosted a pop-up event called The Black Family Archive. The exhibit, held at the Community Build Organization Center in Leimert Park, showcased photos of the authentic Black experience in America.
The Black Image Center’s mission is to preserve the visual imagery of Black Americans. They do so by hosting workshops and providing equipment for Black families to catalogue their photos and preserve their memories. The organization’s aims to provide free and low-cost photography services to young artists from disadvantaged communities. They hope to stimulate imagination and empower Black storytellers and creatives. The event is produced by the teams of the artist-led organization known as For Freedoms and Converse. These two groups teamed up in order to make the pop-up that can help Black people connect to their history and preserve their legacies.
Maya Mansour, a founding member of Black Image Center, got her start by photographing the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and curated this pop-up. “We wanted to create a space to kind of garner that same excitement that we had for our own family archives… Most of the vendors are black women.” Mansour said. The event was also backed by vendors of different varieties, including performers and live music.
Kicking off the event was art provided by Adee Roberson, a Black artist who worked with an initiative known as “Hear Her Here,” which seeks to make a space for Black femme artists. As the event happened, her art, a mural made of portraits of Black people, was on display at the back of the building. “She uses her family photos as the raw material for her screen printing practice.” Mansour said.
The Black Image Center has many ways of preserving Black families’ history. The organization provides consultations where those interested can create a preservation plan with an expert on film. Options for families include scanning existing photos to a computer or hard drive or converting digital photos to printed copies. Finally, the Black Image Center also offers rehousing services to keep and preserve damaged, deteriorating and loose photos in a safe place.
The pop-up also gifted film to attendees via a featured exhibit dubbed the “free film fridge” This was provided by the organizers so that young artists can access additional resources to document black experience. Film is often a costly barrier to entry for beginner and experienced photographs, and this resource gives them an extra opportunity to further their skills.
Mansour provided some final reflections on the event. “I think that our goal, in putting together this event, is really to kind of highlight… the building blocks of Black history,” Mansour said. “It’s been really amazing to see Black families work with Black archivists to bond over how exciting it is to see photos of [their] ancestors.” Upcoming events for the benefit of the community are advertised on www.Blackimagecenter.org.
