(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Florestine Perrault Collins photographed Black New Orleans [1] ['Tammy C. Barney', 'More Tammy C. Barney', 'Verite News'] Date: 2024-03-08 Self-portrait of Florestine Perrault Collins, early 1920s. Credit: Florestine Perrault-Collins, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Florestine Perrault Collins broke all the 20th century rules for women and Black people. She left home before she was married. She got divorced and married her ex-husband’s friend. And as a prominent gifted photographer, she chronicled Black life in New Orleans. Collins “was often pushing at the edges,” according to her great niece Arthé A. Anthony, professor emerita of American Studies at Occidental College. Anthony wrote about Collins in the 2012 book “Picturing Black New Orleans: A Creole Photographer’s View of the Early Twentieth Century.” “In a rabidly racist America where horrific photo postcards of lynchings were peddled as souvenirs, Florestine focused her lenses on the genteel dimensions of Black communions and graduations…weddings and piano recitals,” Anthony wrote. “She photographed the sacred and secular rites of passage that marked special moments in Creole culture.” Born in 1895, Collins started working for photo studios when she was 14. Passing for white, she also worked for the Eastman Kodak Company. If white employers “ever thought I was colored, they probably wouldn’t have allowed me to take pictures,” Collins told Anthony. Collins started taking portraits in her living room in 1920. Through word of mouth and newspaper ads, her reputation grew. In the mid-1930s, she opened a studio on South Rampart Street within the Black business district. Her clientele expanded to include people with darker complexions and her business thrived despite the Great Depression. In 1949, Collins retired to Los Angeles. She returned to New Orleans in 1975, living here until she died in 1988. She left behind her breathtaking photographs to tell her story. “Her photography created a powerful record of middle-class Black propriety and dignity,” Anthony wrote, “a record providing a glimpse of the rich and varied threads running through the fabric of this vibrant culture.” Related Stories Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/03/08/florestine-perrault-collins-photography/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/