After reading "Committed to the Image: Contemporary Black Photographers" I am determined to learn more about the trailblazers of black photography.  I didn't expect a book about modern day photographers to compel me to learn more about the image-makers of the nineteenth century.  But, as I started Googling the names mentioned in the forwards by Clyde Taylor and Deba P. Patnaik, I found myself fascinated by the thought of what it must have taken to have achieved the skills, experience and acclaim in photography that those such as Mary Warren and Harry Shepherd achieved in their era.  Case in point… It's 2010 and I don't own a studio anywhere, but in 1866 the Houston directory listed Mary A Warren as having a downtown studio.  Warren was the first professional black female photographer in the United States.  That's right, in 1866!

Finding that little nugget of information propelled me to dig deeper.  I found an article written about photographer Harry Shepherd circa 1899. 

"Within the last decade he has arisen from almost obscurity to the position of the leading and most popular photographer of the city…  He is a genius; and, like most geniuses, he is somewhat erratic and is not fully understood even by his best friends and when an idea takes possession of him he follows it with rapidity that absolutely takes away the breath of his plodding contemporaries." 

Along with those words were numerous samples of Shepherd's work – photographs of black, white and native american people all embracing Shepherd capturing them in their everyday life – the humble beginnings of modern day photojournalism.

Hearing about these triumphs achieved by people whose names are preceded by "born free" makes me even more determined not to let the freedom and opportunities afforded me to go to waste.