Filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris Examines African-Americans’ Place in the American Family Photo Album

We are often told that one picture can be worth 1,000 words. If that is so, imagine the value of a complete family album. And then imagine what a collection of family albums could tell you about an entire people.

That question led filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris on a ten-year journey that resulted in his latest film Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People.

The film explores the role of photography in shaping the identity and public images of African-Americans from the age of slavery to the present.