soulbrotherv2:

louis draper, plucked from obscurity

by john edwin mason

until recently, histories of photography would have ignored louis h. draper — not because of the quality of his photographs, but because of the color of his skin. with the exception of gordon parks, african-americans were mostly glossed over or excluded altogether.

but over the last 25 years, a new generation of historians and curators have worked to pluck from obscurity photographers who were marginalized because of color, gender, geography or class. those efforts were often thwarted by the loss of photographers’ papers and prints. luckily, mr. draper had preserved an archive, and in recent years, his work has risen in visibility and esteem.  [Continue reading at the New York Times.]