Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People

Synopsis

The film narrates how African Americans have used camera to bring social changes.

Reception

The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 54% of 13 film critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 6.3 out of 10.

Zeba Blay in her review for Indiewire said that "It shows us the disturbing lynch photographs and minstrel illustrations in all their startling, horrific detail. But it also counterbalances them with countless photos of black people by black people, pictures from family albums all the way to the professional work of some of the most seminal black photographers in America. There’s an understanding that the lynch photos, the regal pictures of Booker T. Washington and Sojourner Truth, the images of Carrie Mae Weems staring straight into the camera in her Kitchen Table Series, all lie on a continuum. They’re happening now. And its through these images we’re privy to a secret history of the black photographer and the black subject, a history reaching far back into the past and shining a light on those who paved the way for everyone, all of us, to affirm our own identities through the images we take of ourselves and each other." Dennis Harvey of Variety gave the film a positive review by saying that, "Though a tad uneven, as a whole the documentary cannily juggles an overview of African-American history in general with the specifics of its photographic representation and talents."

The Huffington Post added it in their "10 must see films at (2014) Sundance."