TBG Library: Black Archives: A Photographic Celebration of Black Life

Published Feb 17, 2023, 8:00 AM

The Therapy for Black Girls Podcast is a weekly conversation with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed Psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia, about all things mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves.

We're back with another addition to the TBG Library, Black Archives: A Photographic Celebration of Black Life by Renata Cherlise. Renata is a multidisciplinary, research-based visual artist and founder of the digital archival project Black Archives, where she features visual histories and modern-day stories across the African diaspora. Today she joins me to chat about her debut photo book, her family’s long-standing love for archiving their history, and how you can get started archiving and documenting your own experiences. 

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Welcome to the Therapy for Black Girls Podcast, a weekly conversation about mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves. I'm your host, Dr Joy hard and Bradford, a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information or to find a therapist in your area, visit our website at Therapy for Black Girls dot com. While I hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, it is not meant to be a substitute for a relationship with a licensed mental health professional. Hey, y'all, thanks so much for joining me for another bonus episode in another into our TVG library. This time it's Black Archives, a photographic celebration of black life by Ranada Shirleys. We'll get right into our conversation with Nada after a word from our sponsors. When was the last time you combed through family photos and mementos, or even sat down and recorded a conversation with one of your elders. If it's been a while, Nada shirt Leaves of Black Archives is here to guide you. Ranada is a multidisciplinary, research based visual artists and founder of the Digital Archival project Black Archives, where she features visual histories and modern day stories across the African diaspora. Today, she joins me to chat about her debut photo book, Black Archives, a photographic celebration of black life, her family's long standing love for archiving their history, and how you can get started archives and documenting your own experiences. If something resonates with you while enjoying our conversation, please share with us on social media using the hashtag TBG in session or join us over the Sister Circle to talk more in depth about the episode. You can join us at community that Therapy for Black Girls dot com. Here's our conversation. Thank you so much for joining us today right now, I'm happy to be able to chat with you. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. So I'd love for you to get started by telling us a little bit about what archiving is and can you tell us also a little bit about the origin of Black Archive. Absolutely, for me, archiving is an intentional way of preserving materials, whether it's documents, it can be photographs, some sort of inphemera, anything that you want to keep for later use or later reference. And what we do with Black archives so we pull from materials that have already been archives, whether they've been archived through other institutions or communities or people. We share those archive materials across our social channels, and then we also incorporate them into other projects. So Black Archives originated as a project very much in self exploration. So I was just really curious about archives and just having access to all of these unearthed images and looking at a way to sort of explore the broader visual story of the black experience. So I considered a gathering place where collectively, you know, we can engage with archives across various mediums, uncovering and sharing the research. Got it, and it sounds like there's a personal connection there too. So both your grandmother and your father were shutter bugs. What lessons about photography did you learn from them and your love for archiving? You know, my grandmother she used a polaroid camera pretty much, and she focused on documenting the celebratory moments, so those are your birthdays, your holidays, and special occasions. My dad, on the other hand, he recorded literally everything, so even things that didn't appear to be significant, he still recorded it. And I think through them, I learned that both were equally important, and so I try to bring an added layer, incorporating both of their practices into my practice. So can you talk a little bit about the history of archiving. Who are some of the pioneers in this space. Yeah, so people have been archiving since the beginning of time, and I want to say that I consider myself more as a memory worker as opposed to an archivist, particularly in the professional sense. And so as a memory worker, I'm working through space and time through the use of archives, and you know, I engage with them through various projects. But I say it's an aggregation of archives because the work is already archived. I'm essentially just pointing you to those sources. And so, as a family archivists, at a personal level, my role is the person that gathers and preserves or digitizes. So the pioneers in this space for me essentially is anyone within my lineage who actively participated in preserving our family stories. That's my mom, my grandmother, my auntie, my great grandma, you know, and so forth. So I really come into this space without formal training and archiving, and so my references originate at the family and community level. It's like who's telling stories, who's writing them down, who took the photos, who put them into some sort of safe place for keeping after they passed, who took them out, you know, who backed them up? Who rings everything together? And I think that's where I come into archiving at a family level. M Yeah, you know, we're not. I think a lot of us have probably a story. So for myself, like my grandmother would collect the programs from funerals that she attended. She's past now, but she had this black purse that she had all of these old family pictures in. And one of my favorite things to do around the holidays would be to like gather the family and say, Okay, who are these people in the pictures? And like what can we be doing with this? And so I would imagine that many of us have that kind of a story where people have collections of these things but aren't sure what to do with it and how to get started. What kinds of recommendations would you have for how to get started with archiving your family history. I just start with the basic, right, like as simple as possible. I started with a photo scanner, you know, an external hard drive and my computer and just be in digitizing personally, for me, I consider myself like a digital hoarder, So I ties everything and I store and I back it up like a million times. But at a basic level, you can just upload them into a cloud drive, back them up to an external hard drive. Label your photographs. You can take it another step and categorize them by themes or geographic locations, whatever you know. System you create on your own, you want to make sure that the original document or ephemera or whatever you have to preserve, that that's available for safekeeping as well. So what if we come from a family who has not done a great job of capturing some of those memories in the past, but we want to start doing some of that. So what tools, either digital or physical, would you suggest for us to get started with, like capturing new memories. Utilize what you have. Let's keep it as simple as possible. Before I had access to like recording device, you know, use my phone and this into the voice memo. Sometimes you don't have access to everything where sometimes things sort of happen on the spot, and so using the voice memos on your phone, your iPhone, if you have an iPhone, that's really been helpful for me and I've recorded a lot of conversations, you know, with elders and people in my family who are no longer here. So just start with what you have, if you have a camera, or get a camera, or utilize your phone, and just make sure that you're backing that up, that you're transferring off of your phone to some sort of external hard drive and then backing that up which can be a cloud or something. Make sure that you have multiples mm hmm, got it. So. I know sometimes when we are talking to elders in our families about history, there can be some distrust um and like well what are you using this for? And like what's happening? Why do you need this? So do you ask for permission before you record? And how do you explain to them like what's happening or what you're doing with the material? I used to Now everybody knows that I'm going to report just oh that's for not that she's got the camera, and so they engage with me. But I think once you set the intention and set the tone the expectation that you are the designated photographer, you're the person who's going to be documenting, then they're sort of easy going. Most cases, I try to have my phone with me right just to record, because you never know when that thing or you know when she's going to say something, So I always try to have it with me just to make sure that I'm ready to record. You know, sometimes she'll catch me off guard and just give me one second, let me go grab my phone, let me get this really quick. You know, she's used to it. And do you take the opportunity for like holidays or other family gatherings to do some of this work with people in your family. That's the perfect time because everyone is together and you can do fun things, right, things that get everyone together for your portraits. But you can also do video diaries or have them take self portraits, or you just can do a lot of fun things in that type of setting. So yes, those are definitely moments you want to capitalize on. Mm hmm. So you mentioned the term rooted that I want to go back to because I don't know that I've heard that term before. So you said you refer to yourself more as a memory worker. Can you say more about what that means in the sense of an archivist like I mentioned, You know, I don't have you know, the formal training or the professional training that is required to work in archives. I don't work with archives in a professional sense. I don't work with archives on a day to day basis. What you see is me working through or engaging with archives and sort of sharing that imagery or that history or those materials across you know, our social platforms. And so I mean, as plainly as I can stated, I work through space and time through the use of archives, but I don't necessarily preserve them in a professional sense, because those materials are already archived, you know what I'm saying. So, Okay, that are have already done that work. They already have a staff of archivists that are doing the work to preserve the stories so that folks like me, as a memory worker, I can delve into those materials, I can unearth them, and I can share them with the larger community. Got it. Got it. So, I don't know if you've seen this, but I've definitely seen like posts on social media, particularly it seems around moms or women who have struggles with like having pictures of themselves taken. Our moms because they're the one always taking the picture right, and so then they are not ever in the images. So do you have anything that you any advice or words of encouragement you might share for people who are uncomfortable with having pictures of themselves taken. Yes, So two things to that point. The first thing is I'm always behind the camera. I'm very intentional about showing up because you want to make sure that you're showing up in that record to have a family gathering, and you're the one that's always documenting, but you never are seeing. That's something that I try to avoid, right and to the point where, if you know, one of my family members see me like recording everything, they're like, hey, Nada, I need you to pop in this picture. And so you gotta be intentional about that in the sense of maybe not feeling like you want to be recorded or you want to be documented. I mean, I get that. I know for me, there are times where you know, I wish I had a moment captured that there wasn't a camera around for whatever reason, and you don't want to go your whole life without photographs of yourself. Mm hmmm. As I hear you talk, it sounds like you have really kind of changed the dynamic in your family where it seems like multiple people now are thinking about like how to capture family history, like they will see you as the person with the camera in oh, you make sure you're included too. Can you talk a little bit about how that dynamic made me His shifted in your family. My dad was that person, and my dad passed away a long time ago, It's been about fifteen years so far, and I just moved into his role. And he was the person that was always documenting. But when you look back at, you know, some of those home movies and some of those photographs, you don't always see him. And I didn't want that to be me, right, And I wanted to make sure that you know, I'm accounted for. And I do wish that, you know, we could have seen him more, especially as I looked through his work. But yeah, I just assumed that role and everyone just kind of fell into it because you know, my dad sort of set the expectation for that, right right. And you mentioned that your grandmother kind of was on the side of capturing the celebratory moments while dad was the one who captured like the everyday moments. Can you say more about why it's important for us to document seemingly mundane social history of black people. You know, life is not always about the big moments, and I think it brings balance when you're capturing not only or focusing on those those bigger moments. You know, life consists of the celebratory moments and the smaller, much quieter moments, and you know, we should all have some sort of reference to that. So it's important, you know, and for my family there was balanced because, you know, my grandmother did what she could. She was on a fixed income and she needed to preserve the film for those moments. My grandmother wanted to make sure that she had film to document and record those special times. And with my parents, they had a little more money, so they were able to be a little more free with the documentation. And so it's just important to have those right right more from my conversation with Nada after the break, So, what are some culturally specific but often forgotten nuances you've seen in your years of archiving. That's a good question to go back to what you said about moms not showing up in the photographs all the time. Sometimes we may not always look or feel our best as we carry the way to the world on our shoulders and our hearts, you know, on our backs. But if we're always waiting for that perfect photographical moment, we'll go through life and miss so many other moments in between that I know that I wish I had back or do over for myself, I'll say this, I think more self portraits and more video diaries. I have a series of video diaries where I greet myself. Whomever may come across the diary, you know, in the future, hopefully is someone within my family. But I say the date and I go on with my journal entry, you know, and sometimes it's just giving a personal update, and others are a little more complex. But I would love to see that from my elders have some sort of like reference asked too, just a personal moment with them in the camera, just being vulnerable. So if I could say that, that would be one of the nuances I would like to see more of, or at least that we're taking into consideration when we're documenting m Yeah, I could also imagine that being a real treat for your children to have at one time, right to see Mom as like an actual woman and not just mom. Right, and you know, hearing a recording of like your daily thoughts I came across the video of my dad that blew me away. And it's only one video, but I think this was back in the nineties and recently came across this. I think the goal was just to fill up some extras face on the tape so he could you make the most of it. I was just sitting in front of the camera and he was talking about me. We just went to Ronada's fifth grade graduation, and it was you know, it was a time, you know, it was sort of like this intimate, vulnerable moment that he had, but the camera just won on one and I feel so like, I feel so blessed to have that and to witness that, and I wish there were more like why didn't he do this more often? And so I make sure that I'm intentional about doing that and I would love to see that and not necessarily for me to benefit from other families to have that experience too. You know, as you're talking, it makes me think, I think some of what people are doing with social media is an attempt at like this digital archiving. Right, So when you talk about the journal entries, like, I feel like some people kind of do that kind of thing on TikTok. Do you have thoughts about that serving as a digital archive and like how maybe people can take what they use there and making their own personal archive, just you know, instead of posting, you know, just saving it and archiving it that way, because I do the same things. Some things are personal and things that I definitely wouldn't share on social media or TikTok's or anything like that. But just knowing that I have a place where I can do that myself and get things that I need to get out, you know, that's something to consider. I'm making sure that there's an archive for whatever they want to share, because also we don't know how long you know, these platforms are going to live, and you know what happens to that technology. So so what do you think about archiving makes it a tool for black resistance or liberation? Well, I mean, we have paper trails, right, just sort of trace back our stories in some cases, but through photographs sometimes that can be a bit difficult, and I know, for me in my family, one of the things that I question is where are our photographs, you know, prior to the nineteen sixties. Why do I see us in the seventies, eighties, and nineties and so forth. But happened to that imagery before or prior to And my mom told me a story about my great grandmother she got into like a dispute with the landlord, and all of our family photos at that time, prior to the seventies, we're in like this dresser and he's just sort of held at hostage, and then photographs were just abandoned displays. Whatever each story, I don't know, but we don't have access to those images anymore, but they're after. My mom and my aunt and my grandmother are very intentional about creating a record, some sort of visual record of our lives and our histories and preserving that so that we have some sort of point of reference. So that would probably be just resisting the attempt of erasure. Mm hmmmm hmmm. Yeah. And I think also back to earlier conversation about like just everyday black life, right, I think so many of the pictures from older days we see are around like being at protests and as opposed to we were doing that, but also like just having Sunday dinner where our families, our kids playing in the yard, right, I think it's important to have a record of all of that. Yeah, kids just being still there so many photographs of everyday moments that I can reflect on that just bring me joy. Don't get me wrong, I do and enjoy reflecting back on those celebratory moments, especially when we started using the family cam quarter right, So those are really fun because you get to see everybody's personality. But yeah, the everyday moments are so special, and you're right, there's more to us than protesting. There's a quiet moments in between that are also important. So how have black women been underrepresented in the archives and archival work. That's a good question because for me, black women have carried the story the men and my family have and I'm speaking with archives within a family sense, that's where I relate to. But the men and my family, for one reason or another, you know, they passed very young, and so the women were left to carry the stories and the past stories down and my family, the women and my family are the ones that are helping us attach the names to faces, filling in the gaps. Yeah, I think back to my earlier story around my grandmother, right Like, having all these recordings of funeral programs, right like, it definitely feels like the women in families tend to be the ones who are archiving some of their history without necessarily knowing what they're doing there. Yeah, So in twent and you launched a Tumbler page Lost in Urbanism. What lessons from the block did you take into working on your book? You know, that was so long ago, it was a lifetime ago, and you know, at least five years before I even launched Black Archives, so very much feeling my way around and navigating that space of look at all of these images and just overwhelmed because these images weren't photographs that I saw in textbooks or that I was familiar with than the media. And so I said, on this journey, this path for self expiration. I think when I learned through that process was in the early days. My research now, in comparison to then, it's completely different, right, And so I think that helped me become a really good researcher. And I learned the importance of researching and how to reverse image search to find the original source, because not all photos that you come across online have the proper credits or cited properly. In the early days of Tumbler, I'm coming across photograph and I'm just sharing it, right because I don't know that there's these rules, and through time, that's one of the things that I learned, you know, how to properly source and incite and credit. Now it's funny because I have friends who come across photographs. They'll text me, we're not, like, do you know the photographer for this photo on this this thing where it's like a puzzle, and yeah, give me a day and I'll get it back to you. I was gonna ask, you know, since you brought up the whole idea of like being able to give credit, I knew that is something that is often a struggle for photographers and people who do similar kinds of work to you, with people kind of sharing stuff without proper attribution, Is that something that's been a concern for you, And if so, how have you managed that. No, we're sourcing from archives and we're including those attributions into different captions, so that really hasn't been a problem for us. But sometimes you'll come across imagery from like the early nineteen hundreds where the photographer is unknown, you know, we'll simply state that this is an unknown photographer, or maybe they're found photographs where people found these photographs and share them online and there is no way to sort of know who took this photograph, or sometimes you can use contextual clues to guess where the photograph was taking if it's in a public place. But you know, sometimes you do your best. I researched as much as I can, and I do my best person all of the information, and that way, if someone wants to do further research, you know at least they have some sort of reference point. Got it more from my conversation with Nada after the break. So when did you know it was time to take Black Archives the Instagram page in the digital project into a book. I think that has always been a goal. It actually has been a goal because I remember back in the Loss and Urbanism days, I would think to myself, like, it would be so cool to have a book, right, But I wasn't to that point yet. And so when I launched Black Archives in I launched it with the intend that this would sort of act as a creative unbrea lah where I could work on various different projects and engage with archives across different mediums. And so this book is just one of those projects under that umbrella. I would say that I always thought it would be cool to create this book, right. I didn't know it was going to be this book, but I knew I wanted to create a book. And I want to do other things too, you know. I want to work on film projects and other types of collaborative archival projects as well. M m mmmm. Any information you can give us about other things that you're hoping to do, not just yet, we gotta stay tuned. I hope that will continue to grow and evolve. Got it, Got it. So, in your book, you speak on the beauty and importance of documenting youth, which you've already kind of alluded to here. In the book, you say, as a mother, it's important to me that my personal and professional work reflects intentionality in my celebration and love of black youth while reminding black folks of the sweet moments tucked away within the memories of their own black chilhoods. Can you share some thoughts on the value of documenting our youth and the youth around us. Yeah. Absolutely, you'll see that. When you know we're sharing photographs across our social you always see in most cases they're black youth, and so that's always at the forefront. And I always think that it's important to just thinking back and to the archives that we're sharing present day. It's always so cool to imagine, you know, what our grandparents and great grandparents, because I know, for me, you know my grandmother, you know, when I was born, it was like, oh, she's my grandmother, right, But I was just asking my mom, I said, like, I'm trying to find pictures of Granning. But she was, you know, a kid or a baby. And because of that unfortunate incident with the landlord with my great grandmother, I don't have that reference, and so I always see her as sort of like this older woman, which is fine. It's just it's so cool to imagine what it would have been like to see her as a young person. I do show black youth as often as I can, and you know, it's it's important to be reminded of that. It definitely feels like there's a lineage of this in your family. Can you say a little bit about what you've taught your own children about the importance of making memories and capturing them. Oh? Yeah, you know, I have one daughter. She's a sophomorist fellman right now, and she's just black archives the whole time. I've been creating black archives. She's been right here by my side, and so it's so funny because sometimes I'm not always around her in family gatherings, and she just inherently just starts recording and then she'll send it to me, like, Mom, at this really cool stuff. And I think it's fantastic because she's seen me do it right. And then it's sort of like this thing where she's incorporated into her own practice and to her own so that it's just part of her now. I love that. I love that she'll have her own little archive to contribute. It's always funny too, when my mom and my other family there in Florida, I live in Metro Atlanta, if they're going to a Sunday brunch. This just happened last weekend. Actually, my mom is recording, you know, all of my cousins and everyone, and I can hear her as she's pressing record on her phone. Everybody say hey, Ranado, because if I don't get this, she's gonna kill me. You know, just almost strained to document even when I'm not available or if I'm not there. So I think that's really cool. M So we're not because it does seem like several members of the family are now involved in this. Do they just end up like sending it all to you or is there like a family Google Driver or something where people like upload stuff? Do you all have a system? Yeah? Both? Actually, you know, if I'm doing it, I will record, and I will take on that archiving process and I'll share the Google Drive link so everyone has access to download at their leisure. What we've learned with our family is just do it at the top of mine, right, So as soon as you record it, turn your air drop on, right, let me get the photos, let me get the videos, and then I can get out of everyone's hair. But yeah, otherwise I'll just start harassing them for Hey, where those photographs of you know? Right? Right? So can you help us make sense of what we should do and like how to get started with some of the thousands of photos and videos? Like I'm thinking about myself. My oldest is eight now, and so I have my iPhone, so you know, I have very early memories of all of that, but I know that it all should not live in my phone. So you've talked about the importance of like digitizing and recording, So is the process then to try to move it to some kind of cloud and then write down dates and descriptions or like how should we make sense of like all of the data we have in our phones. You should do that uploaded, you can use the cloud, and then you can move it from your computer to an external hard drive. I usually save them. It depends, but I have a few systems, but I think you should use something that you use universal across It's just so that it's easier for you to find, especially if you're the one that's going to be archiving. But I include the year, so I'll use you know, and sometimes I'll just use also keywords, and you know that without having to rewatch whatever that video is quickly, I can glance and see that, oh, this is when we have that birthday outing last year, and just start with that. I don't think it should be this difficult thing, because you know, we can quickly get overwhelmed. But I mean, if you take it step out of time, just start with uploading it, labeling it, share it, you know, so other people have access to and other people know that you know, have this place, this centralized place where you're getting the archive, the family moments, whatever they are yeah, just share it and then just keep doing it a little out of time. And I'm not gonna say it can't be overwhelming, because it can be. But I think it's a lifelong process. Is something that I know, for me, is something that I've signed up to do until someone else comes along and I can sort of pass on the role to someone else. So I would imagine that lots of people who check out this episode will be really interested in kind of starting to do something with their families. So let's say we have some community members who are preparing like a family gathering or there's a wedding coming up, and they maybe want to start getting maybe some video footage. Do you have any prompts or like favorite questions that you ask maybe the elders in your family, are other people in your family to kind of get some of this stuff started. That's a really good question. I don't only because I'm the type of person that will get you on face time, like as soon as the thought comes to mind, right, And so I know I've covered a lot out of ground with my family in terms of getting those moments. But I'm trying to think if I could just like go back in time to the very first time where everything was new. All right, Let's say you have some elders, right, I would start just asking them their name, when they were born, how they grew up, where they grew up, and you know, it doesn't have to be strategic or this structured thing. Just let it flow. And as they began to tell you the stories of however they came to be, I think the conversation will begin to unfold and you can just take it to where it needs to be taken to. But just start off simple. Yeah, and I think you know sometimes you'll be surprised where those conversations go by asking him something like what was your favorite thing to do? Or who are some of your friends? Then? Right, and who knows what kinds of things open up? Then? So RANAO, where can we keep up with you online? So? What is your social media handles you want to share as well as your website? So you can find Black Archives on Instagram. That was the very first social platform we popped up on. It's b L A c K A R C h I V S dot co. So it's black Archives dot CEO. And we're also on Twitter at black Archives Co. And we're also on Facebook so you can find us on Facebook as well under black Archives dot co. And how can we support the book? The book is available wherever books are being sold. You can also inquire with your independent bookseller to purchase the book and get it in stock that way as well. You can purchase it online on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Walmart, everywhere you can think. And can you give us the full title of the book again, Renato Black Archives a photographic celebration of black life. Perfect well, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. I'm so glad Ranada was able to join us to share about her family's love for archiving and highlighting the importance of capturing life's mundane and celebratory moments. We'd like to challenge you to take a moment to record an everyday moment with a family member or loved one this week and share with us on socials using the hashtag TVG Black Archives. And to learn more about Nada or to grab a copy of the book, visit Therapy for Black Girls dot com slash black Archives. If you're looking for a therapist in your area, check out our therapist directory at Therapy for Black Girls dot Com slash directory. And if you want to continue digging into this topic or just be in community with other sisters, come on over and join us in the Sister Circle. It's our cozy corner of the Internet designed just for black women. You can join us at Community dot Therapy for black girls dot com. This episode was produced by Freda Lucas and Alas Ellis and editing was done by Dennis and Bradford. Thank y'all so much for joining me for this conversation. We'll be back next week with our regularly scheduled episode. Take it care, What's

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