A Timely and Timeless Exhibition

Many times in the history of the George Eastman Museum, we have been the first institution to present the works of a photographer or to organize a monographic compendium early in an artist’s career. We are thrilled to present an early-career survey of the work of Joshua Rashaad McFadden (b. 1990) in our main galleries from this November 5 through June 19, 2022.

McFadden was born and raised in Rochester and has returned to teach photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Consisting of works from seven series, Joshua Rashaad McFadden: I Believe I’ll Run On demonstrates his mastery of a wide range of photographic genres — fine art, social documentary, and reportage — and his use of the medium to confront racism and anti-Black violence. McFadden documents the beauty of Black life and illuminates the specificity of Black living in our historical present.

My first encounter with McFadden’s work was through his towering portrait A. W., a stunning artwork included in our recent exhibition Gathering Clouds: Photographs from the Nineteenth Century and Today — and now part of the museum’s collection. My immediate inquiry to the curator was, “Is all of his work this good?” As I learned, McFadden has consistently created strong work, rich with meaning and interpretative opportunities. At that time, there was already a preliminary plan for an exhibition of his recent work in our Project Gallery. I mused aloud that we should consider instead a broad survey of his work in our main exhibition galleries. A consensus quickly formed that, with heroic effort, we could organize such an exhibition to open in fall 2021. We are grateful to our staff for their dedication and teamwork and to McFadden for his invaluable collaboration while he continued to execute assignments as a photographic correspondent, for example, during the trial of Derek Chauvin.

What is perhaps most extraordinary about the seven series, which span the past decade, is their range. After Selma (2015) meditatively presents, in black-and-white photographs, the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches, led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Come to Selfhood (2015–16) combines handwritten narrative texts with photographs to explore the connection between young Black men and their chosen father figures. In Selfhood (2016), McFadden portrays confident and empowered young Black men with his own distinctive technique — applying charcoal and coffee to inkjet prints of photographs — in works that recall paintings by Barkley Hendricks and Kehinde Wiley. All three artists have built on centuries of Western art tradition, but their subjects are proudly Black. Evidence (2017–20) juxtaposes portraits and handwritten notes that detail Black men’s inner lives as related to issues of race, sexuality, fatherhood, and fraternity. A Lynching’s Long Shadow (2018), commissioned by the New York Times, offers a lyrical approach to an unfathomable legacy. Love Without Justice (2018–21) is a set of autobiographical works of contemporary art, which will be exhibited along with digital projections of more than a hundred of the artist’s family photographs. Finally, Unrest in America (2020–21) is a body of photographic reportage of protests in the wake of police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and Daniel Prude in Rochester. In these locations, McFadden was frequently acting as a photographic correspondent for national newspapers or magazines.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of public programs and a beautifully illustrated catalogue, which will be available in early spring 2022.

I am confident that the exhibition will be aesthetically compelling and will illuminate and stimulate thought about challenging issues that are both timely and enduring. The works are both immediately engaging and benefit from repeated viewing. Although the exhibition will be open for more than seven months, we hope that you will come early to give yourself the opportunity to spread the word and to return for further contemplation.

Bruce Barnes, PhD

Ron and Donna Fielding Director

November/December 2021 Bulletin