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Framing Creative Authority
What we think we know about the work — and the person who made it
For more than a decade, I have photographed the Philadelphia Juneteenth Festival in Germantown. From choosing where to stand and what to notice, to when to raise my camera and when to press the shutter, those decisions are mine. They reflect my eye, my instincts, my interests and, more often than not, the limits of what I know about that moment. That last part has become a rich area of inquiry and exploration as I continue to work to preserve and make these photographs accessible through the Germantown Juneteenth Festival Photo Archive. I have had to reckon with something that should be obvious, but is easy for a photographer to forget: making a photograph does not mean knowing everything contained within it.
Someone looking at one of my photographs may recognize a person whose name I don’t know. They may understand the significance of a gesture, a relationship, or a moment that I noticed, but could not fully contextualize. And it goes beyond this: Someone who grew up in Germantown may bring knowledge of the neighborhood that I don’t possess. Or, someone who participated in the festival before I began photographing it may see continuity where I see only what was in front of my camera. In any case, their knowledge doesn’t threaten my authorship of the photograph. It expands what can be known about it. As a…
