Acquired by the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)
and
Featured in the Upcoming Exhibition, “A Picture Gallery of the Soul” at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota

The recent landmark Supreme Court decision guaranteeing employment protection on a federal level for the LGBTQ community underscores the contemporary relevance of a selection of photographs of African American gay and lesbians (pictured above and below), which were taken decades ago by photographer Hugh Bell (1927-2012).

Hugh Bell began his career as a photographer in the early 1950s, and his photograph entitled “Hot Jazz” was exhibited in the “Family of Man” exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in 1955. Over the course of his career, Bell, himself of Afro-Caribbean heritage, photographed many aspects of the African-American experience, including the pioneering stage production of Jean Genet’s “The Blacks” (1961, featuring James Earl Jones, Roscoe Lee Brown, Cicely Tyson, and Maya Angelou); a “Jazz Giants” series (featuring Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and many other musicians and performers); dancer Geoffrey Holder; Afro-Caribbean culture; female nudes for a photo spread in Avant-Garde magazine; and print advertisements for companies (such as Maxwell House Coffee, Miller Beer, IBM Computers, Gulf Gasoline, and the US Navy), all of which were geared to the African-American community.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Hugh Bell photographed numerous gay and lesbian events, including Gay Pride marches, Wigstock and the Greenwich Village Halloween parades. Gartenberg Media Enterprises (GME), a boutique company that exclusively represents the Estate of Hugh Bell, has recently uncovered these photographs in his archives; they have now been catalogued and digitized. David Deitch, Fine Arts Curator at GME remarks that “African American men and women are prominently featured in many of these images. In these historic times, GME offers a celebratory view of these photographs as affirmations of both Black and Queer Identity.”

Click here for more information about Hugh Bell and his legacy or write to info@gartenbergmedia.com.