By Nury Dominguez

Centennial Faces, a traveling art exhibit from the Museum of Florida History, opened on February 9th in the Student Life Art Gallery. Along with the gallery, the event included a mixer with staff, students and soul food to boot.

The 49 pictures of young black Americans are among the 200 or so surviving photographs taken by Alvan S. Harper. Harper was a portrait photographer who worked and resided in Tallahassee from 1885 to 1911, approximately 100 years ago.

These portraits, on display through the end of April, are an interesting take on black history because they document life for African Americans. These portraits show the African American condition in a way that cannot be revealed through words or literature. At a time when things could not be so readily recorded with technology as they are now, these works of art were ways of documenting the history of the African American experience in America.

The African Americans in these portraits appear dignified and honorable. The women are adorned with fashionable corsets and beaded bonnets and the men are designed with tailored coats lined with satin.

These are the inspirational faces of the post-Civil War era when African Americans’ status had risen in society. The people illustrated in these photographs had generated enough wealth to commission portraiture and wear well-tailored clothes.

The exhibit is a valuable part of Floridian and black history as well as artistically meriting. The textures of fabric and skin are palpable in these black and white portraits.

Organized by the Student Leadership and Activity Committee, the exhibit is undoubtedly worth the visit. The Student Life Art Gallery is in S-141 on Santa Fe College’s Northwest Campus.