The non-profit Photography Collections Preservation Project (PCPP) is proud to announce that the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History has acquired a significant collection of work by Connecticut-based photographer Christopher Little.
Read morePCPP to Work With Photographer David Frohman
PCPP is excited to announce a new project partnership with photographer David Frohman.
Known for his documentary eye and storyteller perspective, Frohman’s largest body of work captures the unique communal living society of The Farm community of Tennessee. Following his 12 year documentation of this intentional living community, Frohman’s work has been published in countless magazines and newspapers including Vanity Fair, The Sun Sentinel, and the Atlantic. Today, 50 of Frohman’s images remain part of the permanent collection of the Tennessee State Museum.
During the beginning of July, PCPP’s Leonian Intern, Ayesha Kazim, conducted a virtual interview with David Frohman to discuss the inspiration behind his work. The interview explores the drive behind Frohman’s documentary approach and the legacy he hopes to leave behind through his photography.
To view the full interview and learn more about Frohman’s work, watch the video below.
Collette Fournier Spotlight: “Queen Mother of Progress” Series
Today, we are spotlighting the work of photographer and documentarian, Collette V. Fournier. Fournier’s latest series, “Queen Mother of Progress,” explores the role of Queen Mothers, or traditional female leaders derived from royal lineage, within the Ghanaian community.
In Fournier’s words:
“‘Queen Mother of Progress’ is a documentation of an African-American woman, Nana Alexandreena Dixon, who is the Executive Director of Chiku Awali African Arts and Culture based in Rockland County, NY. Nana Dreena was invited to become the Queen Mother of Progress for the Ghanaian village of Bepoase in 2010 by Pastor and Drummer, Jerry Dzokoto, and educational administrator, Duah Kwaku.
I photographed the enstoolment ceremony in 2010 and visited Bepoase’s school children with educational gifts in 2017. With a strong belief in documenting our own stories, it is my mission to see this Afrocentric exhibition of her journey in museums and cultural institutions complete with captioned material.”
Image Credits: Courtesy of © Collette V. Fournier
Artist Bio
Collette V. Fournier has an M.F.A in Visual Arts from Vermont College and a B.S. from RIT in Communications and Photographic Illustration. Born in Harlem, Fournier grew up in Brooklyn and Queens, New York. She is the retired staff photographer from Rockland Community College and adjuncts in the Photography Department. Fournier has worked as a staff photographer for The Rockland Journal-News, The Bergen Record, and freelanced for The New York Post. Earlier in her career, she worked in television as a production assistant and engineer trainee. Fournier was selected by the University of Rochester to photograph three educational tours to Senegal, West Africa and has traveled to
Ghana, Togo and Benin with Chiku Awali African Dance and Culture. Fournier curated several exhibitions including a multi-sited exhibition, “There is a World Through Our Eyes: Perceptions and Visions of the African American Photographer,” exhibited at Rockland Community College, ACOR, Arts Alliance of Haverstraw, Rockland Center for the Arts and Blue Hill in 1993. Fournier has had fourteen one-woman exhibitions and has participated in over forty group exhibitions.
Fournier is an active member of Kamoinge Inc., an African-American photography collective. Through Atria Books, Kamoinge published Sweet Breath of Life, a poetic narrative of the African-American family by Frank Stewart with writer Ntozake Shange. As a Soros fellow (OSI), she documented Post Hurricane Katrina.
Fournier is a member of the Society for Photographic Education (SPE) and was honored by AAUW for her photography. She received the Artist of Year Award by the County Executive Arts Awards and Arts Council. Fournier has been Artist-in-Residence at the CEJJES Institute in Pomona, NY. and is on board to develop The Gordon Black Cultural Arts Center. Her photography work is collected in Photography Collections Preservation Project (PCCP), Finkelstein Memorial Library, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Smithsonian Institute, WDC, Women International Archive, CA. and in private collections.