Visit to BMA: Flashback: Two Centuries of Baltimore Photography
For our weekly Platform for November 1 at 11 AM, we will visit the Baltimore Museum of Art, located at 10 Art Museum Dr, Baltimore, MD 21218.
We will visit the photographic exhibition entitle, "Flashback: Two Centuries of Baltimore Photography." David Lavine, a BES member and photographer, will join us to share his experience with us.
We have purchased a limited number of tickets to be given free to BES Members. If you're not a member and wish to join us on 11/1 at 11 AM, you can purchase your tickets on line. Please reserve your tickets early.
We will meet in the East Entrance by Gertrude's at BMA, 11 AM. Afterwards, we may gather for lunch.
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https://artbma.org/exhibition/flashback-baltimore-photography/
Flashback: Two Centuries of Baltimore Photography
Date: October 4, 2026 - February 21, 2027
Price: BMA Members: Free | Adults: $15 | Seniors, Active-duty U.S. Military & BMA Member Guests: $13 | Groups: $12/person | Students & Youth: $5 | Children 6 & Under: Free | Discounted admission Thursdays after 5 p.m.
Reserve Tickets:
https://reservations.artbma.org/orders/601/calendar?eventId=6a8da4bf67b18ab5366f2c43&cart&_gl=1*1plkgn7*_ga*MTI3MTM4OTE5Mi4xNzkyNTQzMjAz*_ga_Z89PXM15R3*czE3OTI2MDcxNDYkbzIkZzAkdDE3OTI2MDcxNDYkajYwJGwwJGgw
Experience the first major exhibition to examine Baltimore's pivotal role in the history of photography.
Featuring more than 200 images spanning 185 years, Flashback traces photography in Baltimore from its earliest forms to unforgettable contemporary works. From rare daguerreotypes and Civil War–era photographs to images captured during landmark cultural moments of our time, the exhibition shows photography evolving across generations and offers a rich, nuanced portrait of Baltimore.
New research and fresh perspectives bring to light photographers whose work has often been obscured by gender and racial prejudices. The exhibition shows how photography not only records history but also shapes it, by asking: Who gets to take pictures? Who is seen? And how are images shared?
Exhibition Highlights:
Images by Arthur Laidler Macbeth, founder of one of the city’s earliest Black-owned portrait studios, and
Dora Russell, who established one of Baltimore’s first woman-owned portrait studios, that show how access
to a camera allowed for new forms of visibility.
Rare daguerreotypes, tintypes, and Civil War–era photographs that reveal how photography quickly became entangled with questions of labor, race, mobility, and power.
Poignant examples of photojournalism from Irving Henry Phillips Sr.’s decades of work at the Afro-American newspaper, where he recorded Black life in Baltimore as a subject of national importance.
Selections from landmark documentary projects of the 1970s, a period that saw multiple surveys dedicated to recording Baltimore’s neighborhoods and the ethnic communities within them.
Gripping images from the 2015 Baltimore Uprising and 2020 Black Lives Matter protests taken by Devin Allen, Sheila Pree Bright, Joseph Mario Giordano, and Shawn Hubbard that record the urgency of those moments and frame them as a collective experience rather than a distant event.
Featured Artists:
Berenice Abbott (b. Springfield, OH 1898; d. Monson, ME 1991)
Devin Allen (b. Baltimore, MD 1988)
American Stereoscopic Company (active Philadelphia, PA 1855 – 65; New York City, NY after 1865)
Diane Arbus (b. New York, NY 1923; d. New York, NY 1971)
Amos Badertscher (b. Baltimore, MD 1936; d. Baltimore, MD 2023)
Edward L. Bafford (birthplace unknown, 1902; d. Glen Arm, MD, 1981)
Bendann Bros (Daniel & David, b. Germany 1836 & 1841; d. Baltimore 1914 & 1915)
Jennifer Bishop (b. Cleveland, OH 1957)
Blessing & Co. (active Baltimore, MD 1887-1904)
A. Aubrey Bodine (b. Baltimore, MD 1906; d. Baltimore, MD 1970)
Ralph b. Bonwit (b. Chicago, IL 1895; d. Baltimore, MD 1935)
Margaret Bourke-White (b. New York, NY 1904; d. Stamford, CT 1971)
Sheila Pree Bright (b. Waycross, GA 1967)
Jim Burger (b. Uniontown, PA 1960)
Elinor B. Cahn (b. Baltimore, MD 1925; d. Baltimore, MD 2020)
Joan Cassis (b. MD 1952; d. Baltimore, MD 1996)
W. J. Chapman (b. Exeter, England 1830; d. c. 1923)
William Moody Chase (b. Bolton, MA 1817; d. Boston, MA 1901; active Baltimore 1867-1894)
Richard Childress (b. Wilmington, DE 1939; d. Baltimore, MD 1984)
Carl Clark (b. Boston, MA 1933; d. Baltimore, MD 2015)
Linda Day Clark (b. Fort Knox, KY 1963)
Henry H. Clark (b. CT, 1815; d. after 1885)
Robert Creamer (b. Cleveland, OH 1948)
Cary Beth Cryor (b. Baltimore, MD 1947; d. Baltimore, MD 1997)
Steven Cuffie (b. NC, 1949; d. Baltimore, MD, 2014)
Liz Donadio (b. Niagara Falls, NY 1984) & Shannon Collis (b. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 1978)
Jill Fannon Prevas (b. Baltimore, MD 1982) & Ashley Minner Jones (b. Baltimore, MD 1983; enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina)
Henry Fitz Jr. (b. Newburyport, MA 1808; d. New York, NY 1863)
Susie Fitzhugh (b. New Orleans, LA 1942)
Peggy Fox (b. Pittsburgh, PA 1941)
Leonard Freed (b. Brooklyn, NY 1929; d. Garrison, NY 2006)
Roland L. Freeman (b. Baltimore, MD 1936; d. Washington, DC 2023)
Bill Gaskins (b. Philadelphia, PA 1953)
Audrey Gatewood (born, Baltimore, MD 1995)
Joseph Mario Giordano (b. Baltimore, MD 1973)
Paula Gillen ( b. New Haven, CT 1956)
Phylicia Ghee (b. Baltimore, MD 1988)
Dennis C. Goldstein (b. 1946)
R. Thomas Gregory (b. Baltimore, MD 1948)
Emily Harrison Spencer Hayden (b. Baltimore County, MD 1869; d. 1949)
Robert Houston (b. Baltimore, MD 1935; d. Baltimore, MD 2021)
Shawn Hubbard (b. Baltimore, MD 1982)
Mahtab Hussain (b. Glasgow, Scotland 1981)
Connie Imboden (b. El Paso, TX 1953)
Kei Ito (b. Tokyo, Japan 1991)
Frances Benjamin Johnston (b. Grafton, WV 1864; d. New Orleans, LA 1952)
NIA JUNE (b. Baltimore, MD 1995), Kirby Griffin, Jr. (b. Baltimore, MD 1988) & APoetNamedNate (b. Baltimore, MD 1994)
Saskia Kahn (b. New York, NY 1988)
The Keystone View Co. (active Meadeville, PA 1892-1963)
Nate Larson (b. West Lafayette, IN 1978), Aylin Cerezo-Mendoza (b. Baltimore, MD2008), Destiny DeChamps (b. Baltimore, MD 2008), Lola Jones-Carter (b. Baltimore, MD 2010), Miya Jones (b. Baltimore, MD 2005), & Glori Mahammitt (b. Baltimore, MD 2007)
David S. Lavine (b. Wilmington, DE 1945)
Rockwood Lee (b. Baltimore, MD 1935)
t.p. Luce (b. New Orleans, LA 1964)
Arthur Laidler MacBeth (b. Charleston, SC 1862; d. Los Angeles County, CA 1944)
Ben Marcin (b. Augsburg, Germany 1958)
Rebecca Marimutu (b. New York, NY 1994)
After Joseph D. Marsters (American, b. Canada, 1823; d. 1900)
John Clark Mayden (b. Baltimore, MD 1951)
Shae McCoy (b. Baltimore, MD 1991)
Wright Morris (b. Central City, NE 1910; d. Mill Valley, CA 1998)
William R. Mortimer (b. 1824; d. c. 1874)
Christopher Myers (b. Baltimore, 1972)
Joan Clark Netherwood (b. York, SC 1932; d. Joppa, MD 2021)
Guillaume Pallat (b. Cognac, France 1967)
Elle Pérez (b. Bronx, NY 1989)
Palmer Lenfield Perkins (b. Beverly, NJ 1824; d. Baltimore, MD 1900)
Irving Henry Phillips Sr. (b. Baltimore, MD 1920; d. Baltimore, MD 1993)
John Plumbe Jr. (b. Powys, Wales 1809; d. Iowa 1857)
Henry Pollock (b. Washington, DC 1810; d. 1889)
Linda G. Rich (b. Cleveland, OH 1949)
Jack Radcliffe (b. Elizabeth, NJ 1940)
Richard D. Ridgely (b. c. 1829; d. after 1869; active Baltimore 1863-1869)
Roger Riger (b. Manhattan, NY 1924; d. Huntington Beach, CA 1995)
Kenneth Royster (b. Baltimore, MD 1944)
Dora Russell (active Baltimore, 1894-1904)
John William Schaefer (b. Maryland, 1862; d. 1928)
Chuck Shacochis (b. Baltimore, MD 1969)
Lynn Silverman (b. Syracuse, NY 1952)
Josh Sinn (b. Hackensack, NJ 1991)
Jared Soares (b. Santa Cruz, CA 1982)
Bria Sterling-Wilson (b. Baltimore, MD 1993)
James B. Trainor (active Baltimore, 1880-1904)
Sara VanDerBeek (b. Baltimore, MD 1976)
Gioncarlo Valentine (b. Baltimore, MD 1990)
Elena Volkova (b. Kyiv, Ukraine 1975)
Colette Veasey-Cullors (b. Texas City, TX 1967)
SHAN Wallace (b. Baltimore, MD 1991)
Richard Walzl (b. Stein, Austria 1843-44; d. Baltimore, MD 1899)
John Waters (b. Baltimore 1946)
William H. Weaver (b. Germany 1827; d. Maryland, 1913)
H.C. White Co. (founded New York, NY 1870; Bennington, VT 1874 – 1936)
Jesse Harrison Whitehurst (b. Virginia 1820; d. Baltimore, MD 1875)
Barbara Young (b. Chicago, IL 1920; d. Baltimore, MD 2022)
Grace Zaccardi (b. Ridgewood, NJ 1954)
Curated By:
This exhibition is co-curated by Dr. Leslie Cozzi, BMA Curator and Department Head of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, and Antoinette Roberts, BMA Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art; with Jenna Paper-Evers, BMA Curatorial Assistant, Prints, Drawings and Photographs; and initial contributions by Andaleeb Badiee Banta, former BMA Senior Curator and Department Head, Prints, Drawings and Photographs.
Advisory Panel:
Exhibition research and interpretation was supported by an advisory panel of critics and historians: Lawrence Burney, writer, critic, and founder of True Laurels; Beth Saunders, Associate Director and Curator of Special Collections and Gallery, Albin O. Kuhn Library at University of Maryland Baltimore County; Shannon Perich, Curator, Photographic History Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History; Aaron Bryant, Curator of Photography, Visual Anthropology, and Contemporary History at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture; Deirdre Cross, former Director of Public Programs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture; Deyane Moses, Director, Programs & Partnerships, Afro Charities; educator, curator, and founder of Blackives, LLC; and Angela N. Carroll, writer, curator and art historian; Adjunct Professorial Lecturer, College of Arts & Sciences, American University.
Sponsored By:
This exhibition is supported by The Alvin and Fanny B. Thalheimer Exhibition Endowment Fund, Nancy Dorman and Stanley Mazaroff, Murthy/NAYAK Global Photography Endowment Fund, Stuart and Becky Cooper, and the Cowles Charitable Trust.
The catalog is made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Publication Endowment Fund.
The media partner is WJZ-TV.
