Fine Art Gallery Captures Essence of Black Life

It is an unlikely spot for a fine art gallery--the far end of a sprawling horseshoe-shaped shopping center populated mostly by beauty salons, cleaners and small markets.

But the Black Gallery, founded to showcase rarely seen talent, is accustomed to being viewed as something of an oddity.

Now in its 10th year at the Santa Barbara Plaza, the gallery operators take pride in providing a haven for photographers striving to capture aspects of black life that are seldom shown on the pages of daily newspapers.

“L.A. is very rich visually, but most images that are supposed to represent it are not done by people in the community,” said gallery co-founder and director Roland Charles. “We’ve got to go beyond that, bring out the best in people.”

Beyond the Black Gallery’s neat storefront is a spare, airy interior frequently filled with the mellow, piped-in strains of jazz.

The stark white walls are lined with works by Cameroonian photographer Angele Etoundi Essamba. Her dramatic and sensual images of African women, wrought in black and white, were selected from those included in her book “Passion.”

Aesthetics such as these, Charles said, are rarely displayed in mainstream galleries but find a home at the Black Gallery.

“Some people have a limited idea of what art is, who don’t even accept photography as an art form, particularly among African Americans,” said the soft-spoken Charles, a Louisiana native and photojournalist.

“With black photography, we’re used to seeing social statements, reflecting on crisis situations. But the comments (that) photographers are making now are a lot more subtle, a long ways from the civil rights era.”

Charles co-founded the Black Gallery with three other photographers who, in the wake of a successful group show at the California Afro-American Museum, decided that the city needed a permanent spot for black fine-art photography. The gallery relies primarily on the nonprofit Black Photographers of California and corporate sponsorships for funding.

The Black Gallery also has opened and curated several exhibits that have toured the world, including the comprehensive “Life in a Day of Black L.A.,” a 10-photographer exhibit that premiered at the California Afro-American Museum and traveled to Europe.

“People were amazed,” Charles said of reactions to the show in countries such as Germany and England.

“The only images they had of blacks in Los Angeles came over the news--boys with their hands up against a wall, wearing rollers in their hair, gangbangers.”

Which isn’t to say that the gallery doesn’t have its share of works depicting social strife.

Scenes from riots nearly 30 years apart--1965 and 1992--adorn the walls of the back room, with eerily similar images of National Guardsmen and smoldering buildings.

Far more dominant are fine-art images by artists such as Essamba and local jazz photographer Bob Douglas, ethereal moments such as one Charles himself captured in an uncharacteristically still moment at the First AME Church.

Charles said he believes that reflecting black life accurately also entails showing interaction among races. To that end, he has gathered 14 black and Korean photographers, painters and sculptors for “Collaborations,” a series of jointly created works scheduled to open next year at both the Black Gallery and the Sabina Lee gallery in Koreatown.

“The idea for this show is really working together,” Charles said as he leaned forward excitedly. “There’s so much energy, so much harmony. It’s going to be great.”

And how did he turn up so many artists willing to commit to the project over several months?

“Oh,” he said, smiling, “that was easy.”