Tribute to honor photographer Jack T. Franklin
In more than 400,000 photographs taken over more than 60 years, Jack T. Franklin recorded the luminaries and seminal events of the civil rights movement in Philadelphia, and by extension the African American experience during a turbulent time in the nation.
He did so, beginning in the late 1940s, by capturing the lives of common folk, activists, and icons of the black community in a distinctive style that was meant to be viewed for generations to come.
His legacy includes photos of entertainers, from Josephine Baker to Michael Jackson, and the pantheon of the civil rights movement, from Malcolm X and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Philadelphia's Cecil B. Moore and Georgie Woods. The images are now housed at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, where a tribute to Franklin, who died Sept. 20 at 87, will be at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow.
Franklin, a freelancer for much of his life, was viewed as a photographer's photographer, a resolute master of his craft.
Deborah Willis, an arts photographer and chairwoman of the department of photography and imaging at New York University, said that as a youngster in North Philadelphia, she was inspired by Franklin, who lived nearby...
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He did so, beginning in the late 1940s, by capturing the lives of common folk, activists, and icons of the black community in a distinctive style that was meant to be viewed for generations to come.
His legacy includes photos of entertainers, from Josephine Baker to Michael Jackson, and the pantheon of the civil rights movement, from Malcolm X and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Philadelphia's Cecil B. Moore and Georgie Woods. The images are now housed at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, where a tribute to Franklin, who died Sept. 20 at 87, will be at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow.
Franklin, a freelancer for much of his life, was viewed as a photographer's photographer, a resolute master of his craft.
Deborah Willis, an arts photographer and chairwoman of the department of photography and imaging at New York University, said that as a youngster in North Philadelphia, she was inspired by Franklin, who lived nearby...