Hello, my name is Mark Mersman and I am a Gallery Attendant at the museum. I will be reading the Akin to Jazz section text for Working Together: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop.

Love of music was at the heart of the Kamoinge Workshop. Music—especially jazz—touched on photographers’ memories and family relationships, and served as a bond between members. Jazz was a near constant soundtrack for the group’s meetings, and musicians and live performances were the subject of many of their photographs. Black musicians were a source of inspiration for Kamoinge members to develop their own voices in photography. Jazz also served as a sensibility through which the photographers saw the world, and even as a metaphor for photography itself.

Many members saw a connection between their photographic practice and the basic elements of jazz: both artforms demand technical expertise, knowledge, timing and intuition that enable the artist to enter a flow of virtuosic, improvisational response. Louis Draper directly likened jazz to a Black aesthetic in photography, explaining: “The whole idea of making synonymous your feelings for the camera with your life experience is something that takes a while to develop. It would be, I imagine, akin to jazz and akin to certain very distinctly black outlets.” As Ming Smith put it, “making something out of nothing—I think that’s like jazz.”

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