Object Details
Artist
Robert McNeill, born Washington, DC 1917-died Washington, DC 2005
Exhibition Label
Cropped to focus on a single dockworker, Laborer (Stevedore Longshoreman, Norfolk, Virginia) shows not the labor but the waiting, which sometimes lasted for days because the men were not permitted on the pier until called to work. It is an image of both dignity and resignation. “The look says, ‘what the hell are you doing photographing me,’” remarked McNeill, “and I think it says a lot more.”
African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase
Copyright
© 1938, Robert McNeill
Date
1938
Object number
1993.72.10
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Photography-Photoprint
Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet: 10 x 8 1/8 in. (25.4 x 20.6 cm.)
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Graphic Arts
Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Topic
Figure male\elderly
African American
Occupation\industry\shipping
Landscape\Virginia\Norfolk
Link to Original Record
Record ID
saam_1993.72.10