Earlie Hudnall, Jr. (b. Nov. 8, 1946): Lady with Pup, 1990 - Belize
“Earlie Hudnall, Jr. was born in 1946 and grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He developed an appreciation for personal history through his grandmother, who passed on to him stories of family and community as they sat together on the porch in the summer. Years later, while majoring in art at Texas Southern, he received further encouragement to draw on his own experience from the artist John Biggers, who had founded the university’s art department and urged his students to explore their African-American heritage. As the school yearbook editor, he went out into the community to document the lives of the people in the wards of Houston. The intimacy that he found among neighborhood residents in the predominantly African-American Third Ward area reminded Hudnall of the sense of community he had known as a boy in Hattiesburg. As an artist, Hudnall is widely praised for his ability to capture the emotion in a seemingly mundane moment. Hudnall views his subjects as universal icons, capable of conveying stories about family and community regardless of their race. Hudnall is the university photographer for Texas Southern University in Houston. The Wittliff Gallery is proud to own ten of his images to date.” - SOURCE: Amon Carter Museum website, and Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present by Deborah Willis.
Also:
Flipping Boy, 1983 - gelatin silver print on paper (Smithsonian)
“Hudnall directs us to the boy’s acrobatics in the street as an expression of the beauty found in everyday or humble circumstances. Upside down, the boy takes in Houston’s urban jumble, a phenomenon that is no less confusing to the viewer right side up. Old and new, poor and rich are sharply juxtaposed in a city that makes uneasy neighbors of historically black neighborhoods, such as the Fourth Ward pictured here, and gleaming commercial skyscrapers.” - Smithsonian label
Looking Out, 1991 - gelatin silver print (Smithsonian)
“Hudnall finds inspiration in the beauty and pride in everyday life in African American communities in the South. This youngster’s stare is so direct that he seems to look at and through us, a glance that suggests he is wiser than his age. Completely at ease in his surroundings, his posture, dress, and expression appear spontaneous, but actually the image is carefully composed.” - Smithsonian label
